At the Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Doha, Qatar, the roof is the building. Like a gigantic sheet of white paper gently falling onto the desert floor, the undulating rectangular roof drapes the 50,000-square-foot complex, shading its edges while also sprinkling light inside.
It’s a departure from the traditional domes and minarets of mosques the world over, and that’s intentional, according to architect Liz Diller, whose firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, designed the building. It is the first mosque designed and built specifically for women, and it’s the winner of a 2025 Innovation by Design award in architectural design.
“The fact that there is a mosque for women is a very, very strong statement,” Diller says. “But it was more about what a mosque could be today as opposed to how a women’s mosque would be different from a men’s mosque.”
Punched through the roof are 5,488 conical light wells that tame Qatar’s abundant natural light and create an even, diffuse glow inside. The main prayer hall—rotated 17 degrees off axis to point toward Mecca—is rigorously orthodox, but with a clever twist. It has the requisite mihrab niche indicating the direction of prayer and minbar platform used by the imam, but they are formed within a grand and waving wall of travertine limestone that’s bathed by a skylight at the highest undulation of the roof.
The effect is one of unmistakable reverence. Beyond this central space, the building also includes a library, classrooms, an events space, and a café. Programs offered to women range from the study of scriptural texts to health and mental well-being counseling to financial planning to parenting advice.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s design packages this modern variety of services inside a thoroughly modern building. But it’s also one that respects the power of tradition. The center of the building has one especially large perforation in the roof, sending light below to a small courtyard—a mosque design feature that dates back millennia.
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