The mosque for all Amsterdam residents

“Our idea was to create an urban space, not just a mosque. These are the words of Marc Breitman, architect of the Western Mosque and surrounding housing. French architectural couple Marc and Nada Breitman are commissioned to create a square for the Turkish community, here at Piri Reisplein in the Baarsjes, which is also named after a Turkish sailor. The original plan is to design a square that gives space for the Muslim community to feel at home. The architects envision that the Western Mosque will become the centerpiece of Piri Reisplein and will be further enhanced by classrooms, stores, a Turkish patisserie and other facilities where the community can come together. In short, a neighborhood that can symbolize integration in Amsterdam.

For the board of the mosque, the Westermosque, as it stands now, is a compromise. After years of discussion with the municipality, the housing corporation and local residents, Milli Görüs must relinquish the surrounding facilities. The details of the political events are left aside here. Finally, construction of the West Mosque finally resumed in 2014 and was completed in 2016, to the delight of Amsterdam's Turkish community. Now there is finally a mosque within the ring where people feel at home and that also feels like an Amsterdam mosque.

The architecture of the Westermosque is a cross between the Amsterdam School and the typical Ottoman style of Turkish mosques. You can see this in the red bricks and horizontal lines on the exterior, which are characteristic of the Amsterdam School, while the large dome, the smaller domes at the entrances and the minaret point to the Ottoman style. The idea behind this intersection of architectures is to best integrate the mosque into the already existing and older neighborhood of the Baarsjes.