Ziad Jamaleddine of L.E.FT in Conversation with Selva Gürdoğan

Selva Gürdoğan, director of Columbia GSAPP’s Studio-X Istanbul speak with Ziad Jamaleddine of L.E.FT Architects about his research on the history of mosque design, which was captured in the exhibition Praygrounds at Studio-X Istanbul during March and April 2017. Ziad Jamaleddine is on faculty at Columbia GSAPP, and co-founded L.E.FT with Makram El Kadi in New York in 2005. They have designed residential and cultural projects in New York, Dubai, Turkey, and Beirut, including the recently completed Amir Shakib Arslan mosque located in the remote village of Moukhtara, Lebanon. Speaking about his long-term research project on the history of mosque design, Ziad Jamaleddine says, "The Islamic City was a statement against the body of knowledge that we have inherited for more than 100 years now. ... What was interesting about the map is that it continues to unravel and we continue to populate it with more and more information, while at the same time undoing this idea of homogeneity or unity in Islamic art and architecture."