Welcome to F.I.E.L.D.- the First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database.

Ismaili Centre, London

Encyclopaedia of Ismailism by Mumtaz Ali Tajddin

In 1951, a religious, cultural and social center was established by the Ismaili jamat at Kensington Court, and in 1957 was moved to Palace Gate in the Borough of Kensington. In order to meet the increased needs of a growing community, the majority of whom had settled in or around London, a site for a new center was identified in 1971 at Albany Street in the London Borough of Camden. Architects were commissioned to prepare a submission for presentation to the local authorities. This submission was later withdrawn when planning agreement could not be reached with Camden and the present island site on the Cromwell Road was acquired. Plans for this site, reflecting the Ismaili community's requirements for a place of worship as well as a place of gathering, were submitted in tender to the Greater London Council. Final allocation of the site was adjudged on the basis of appropriateness of use, quality of design and price tendered.

Lord Soames, the President of the Council in the presence of the Present Imam performed the foundation stone ceremony on September 6, 1979. The construction on the site began on July 7, 1980.

The architects, the Casson Conder Partnership, were presented with an unusual design brief. The new building had to make available a substantial amount of space for use by the jamat itself as well as by others. Space was required for the religious education, senior citizen, youth and other institutional activities, such as committee meetings, seminars and receptions. In addition, the design had to meet the desire for the inclusion of a substantial public exhibition gallery. This gallery, the Zamana Gallery is managed by the Aga Khan Foundation, a non-profit international philanthropic agency, which owns most of the community's social development institutions.

The Ismaili Centre is opposite the Museum of National History and the Victoria and Albert Museum, presenting a variety of imposing and elaborately modeled facades, very different from each other in terracotta, brick and stone. Its exterior site has used material and colours which are compatible with those of the surrounding buildings while at the same time in keeping with the traditional Islamic idiom and its colours of white, light greys and blues.

In addition to the main prayer hall, there is a minor prayer hall and a group of classrooms for the religious education. It also contains a multi-purpose social hall, two committee rooms, a council chamber and a reading room, as well as administrative and other offices. The main prayer hall is situated on the second floor, where the building stretches to the limits of the site; it ends a progression through generously designed foyers and staircases, including a long concourse at the approach to the prayer hall itself. At the first floor level, the social hall opens off the main stair landing, so that most of the floor area, from one end of the building to the other, can be used as one space for receptions and audience events. Plans for the ground floor level of the building were conditioned by the need to encourage gradual dispersal to avoid crowd surges on to the pavement and, in the other direction, to absorb visitors quickly into the building upon arrival. Thus, the new entrance tunnel to South Kensington Underground Station, the widened pavements outside the deeply recessed entrances, and the generous outer hall are all planned to minimize the impact on the public pavement at peak periods. The usual roof garden has been designed by Sasaki Associates, with additional advice from the landscape architect, the Lanning Roper. The sight and sound of running water, the play of light and shade, the array of colourful plantings and the integration of the interior and exterior spaces reflect Islamic precedent and add to those aspects of the building which subtly draw from the traditions of a faith, Traditional elements of Islamic interior decor have been the inspiration for many details of the Ismaili Centre. It intended to create the characteristic at atmosphere, the intimacy, the sounds and the play of light usually associated with interiors of Islamic buildings.


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