SUSTAINABILITY
We Built This City DISCOVER SOME OF THE ARCHITECTURAL LANDMARKS BUILDING TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE, RIGHT HERE IN CAMBRIDGE ECO CAMBRIDGE
WORDS BY ALEX FICE
CAMBRIDGE CENTRAL MOSQUE
Care was taken to ensure that the mosque would be as eco-friendly as possible, using sustainably sourced materials such as spruce wood from Europe for the timber frame, solid oak doors and Italian marble flooring in the atrium. The mosque has a green roof that provides a home for insects and wildlife – and there are even bird boxes around the outside for swifts, which nest for life. Large skylights bring plenty of sun into the building, reducing the need for artificial lighting, while photovoltaic cells on the roof provide up to 30% of the mosque’s electricity. In the basement, a water filtration plant collects grey water and rainwater to flush WCs and irrigate the grounds, and sensor-operated taps in the ablution spaces prevent water waste. Sustainably heating a building as large as Cambridge Central Mosque – which has a capacity of over 1,000 people – is no mean feat. Innovative solutions have been employed to ensure that minimal heat energy is wasted: sensors in the floor detect how many people are present at any given time and relay this information to the highly efficient heat pumps. These extract energy from the relatively stable temperature of the air or ground water to heat or cool the building as required.
ambridge Central Mosque is without doubt one of the shiniest jewels in the crown of Mill Road’s
landmarks. It’s also Europe’s first ever eco mosque – and a key player in spreading the message of the importance of sustainable living in Cambridge. Designed by the multi-award-winning Marks Barfield Architects – also known for the London Eye, the British Airways i360 in Brighton and Kew Gardens’ Treetop Walkway – the mosque aspires to be a British, 21st-century building. Combining stylistic elements that reflect its surroundings – including tiles recalling Cambridge’s distinctive yellow bricks, and yew hedges in the garden to evoke English churchyards – with a plethora of eco-friendly features, the mosque boasts a design that is truly sustainable. When coming up with ideas for the design, Marks Barfield Architects went back to the origins of what a mosque is, in its most basic form. They found that early descriptions of a mosque consisted of two date palm trees with a piece of cloth draped over the top. This became the basis for the mosque’s design, with vaulted timber columns that interlace throughout the building, creating the illusion of a canopy of trees.
PRAYER HALL – © AMELIA HALLSWORTH
WOMEN’S ABLUTION AREA – © AMELIA HALLSWORTH
ETHOS OF CONSTRUCTION Mixing advanced, green technology and considered design, Cambridge Central Mosque is leading the way for eco building
82 NOVEMBER 2022 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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