Muqurna X Musgum

Muqurna x Musgum is a project developed for a course at Columbia’s GSAPP titled Architectural Drawing & Representation I. The assignment was to develop a series of representations for a building or typology of choice. I took the assignment in a new direction by combining 2 typologies to invent my own building.

A muqurna is a facade treatment commonly found in Islamic architecture. It uses a series of geometric forms to generate a honeycomb or stalactite patterned vault. This ornamental vaulting is often designated for religious or noble architecture in the Islamic world.

Musgum refers to the Musgum Mud Huts of Cameroon, an ingenious earthen building style used to create dwellings. They have a conical shape and are oriented in round clusters for each community. The facades of these structures are characterized by grooves that both act as a scaffolding for the annual replastering of the building, as well as a water capture system.

These futuristic inventions are preservations of the past and highlight the ingenuity of other cultural modes of building. I wanted to spotlight alternative innovative traditional building practices in a way that maintained their integrity while also reimagining their future existence. Thus, this project became a statement of colonial resistance, especially when considering the discouraging inequity and lack of representation in the study of our built environment.

My creative approach to this project was inspired by sacred geometries and kaleidoscopes, as I drew from the parallel symmetries of both structures. The clear relationship between these forms is a testament not only to our connection as humans, but also the connection we have to our natural world and its divine patterns.