Al-Shaghroud Mosque is located on King Abdulla Road in Taiba neighbourhood in Dammam in the Eastern Province. The mosque’s total area is 1900 meters and it accommodates 2,000 worshippers.

Based on the concept that every era has it is own identity, the mosque was designed in a contemporary way that is unique and can be seen from far away. The main theme depends on the strength and transparency together in a glass with a stone.

Al-Shaghroud Mosque rises on two floors. The ground floor comprises the main prayer hall, the entrance to men prayer hall, entrance to women prayer area, ablutions and toilets. In addition, it contains housing for muezzin and Imam with an area of 500 meters. It also comprises a well-developed library with numerous books on Islam and the Koran. The mosque hosts events for the memorization of the Holy Koran. The first floor, which is built as only a portion of the ground floor, is allocated for Women as their prayer hall, and can be accessed through stairs located at the back of the main mosque.

The site plan reveals that the entire mosque has been directed towards Qibla, ignoring the site’s natural boundaries and borders. This makes the mosque’s architectural composition both interesting and unique. This allows the passers-by and visitor to view simultaneously two sides of the mosque almost from any point. It is also notable that visitors can access the mosque from all site boundaries, as there are two northern gates, in addition to one gate at all other sides of the site.

The design is characterized by its simplicity, as it features certain elements that cast uniqueness, novelty and innovation upon the architectural configuration on both the horizontal and the vertical levels. The main mosque block is separated from the block that comprises services. A neat huge square is allocated for the prayer hall for men, which was directed towards Qibla. The mihrab then is cantilevered from the Qibla wall, which hides behind a secret staircase that leads to the minbar. At the same time, a space has been created symmetrically at the opposite side of the square, which equals the distance cantilevered off the mihrab wall. This space forms a buffer zone between the main mosque block and the services block located at the back, which itself is divided into two symmetrical blocks by the main entrance that leads directly to men’s prayer hall.

The main men prayer hall has been designed geometrically as a full square. It has been geometrically divided into three sections in both directions so that this configuration works to determine the structural logic dictating the locations of columns on the Qibla wall, which in effect determined the size of the prayer hall for women upstairs. The middle part of the geometric composition, which is parallel to the qibla wall has been designed as a light filter that controls the amount of daylight permitted through the roof into the prayer hall. This middle part of the roof has been penetrated by seven frames that formed between them glass trusses intersected with the pattern from other direction. This interesting intersection has defined these glass trusses that work to limit and control light permitted into the double-volume main men’s prayer hall. At the same time these frames spanned all the way to the edge of the site rather than being limited to the square itself. These glass trusses in effect can be seen as a modern replacement to the classical dome.

The block of services attached to the mosque from the eastern side has been divided into two halves along the east-west axis that ends at the mihrab creating the direct entrance to men prayer. In addition, two other entrances have been created along the opposite north south axis which lies in the transitional area between the mosque and the services. These three entrances intersect to form an entry hall leading to the inside of the mosque. It has been taken into account to provide slopes along these entrances to help the elderly people and those with special needs. At the same time secondary entrances have been identified to lead directly to men’s prayer hall from north and south sides of the square.

There exists a stair located through the south-eastern services block leading to the first floor where women prayer hall is located. The North Eastern block located behind the mosque comprises guard room and ablution areas. Located in line with the services block is the free standing minaret that rises in the north of the site.

This horizontal geometric composition has been reflected in a more complex volumetric and vertical configuration. On the first floor the square rises – as the men prayer hall on the ground floor and women prayer hall on the first floor – on two floors. To this massive block the staircase that leads to the women prayer hall is attached, whilst the services block height was limited to the ground floor only.

From the outside, the overall architectural image is dominated by the frames that penetrate the ‘volumetric square’, or the cube. This adds a contemporary touch to the volumetric configuration unprecedented in the urban composition of mosques. This has allowed the designer to create flexibility and vitality to blocks and architectural surfaces without resorting to classic stereotypes. These frames appear as an element that binds and links the project together, creating integration between mass and void. This has been handled intelligently by the designer to create framed entrances for the mosque on the one hand, and to create shaded areas characterized by thermal moderation away from the heat of the sun. These transitional areas defined by the spaces between the blocks also formed distinct architectural spaces between the inside and the outside to serve as thermal filters that determine the heat transfer between the inside and the outside.

The internal spatial configuration was marked by the open to the sky unprecedented relationship formed by glass trusses in the men’s prayer hall. This allowed natural light to enter the mosque. The glass elevations defined at the North and South sides of the ‘cube’ along the frames that penetrated the bulk of the mosque seemed like a three dimensional crystal glass. However, despite admitting light to the middle part of the prayer hall horizontally and vertically, the area located on the ground floor under women’s Hall retained a great deal of shade as it is kept isolated, and worked as a buffer zone between the inside and the outside.

This mosque design offers an unprecedented geometric and architectural model. The designer refrains from using classic stereotypical elements. Instead, the designer shows a great deal of innovation in defining surfaces providing quality solutions in the intelligent creation of architectural spaces. The design invokes the conscious manipulation of geometric surfaces, the volumetric intersections on the horizontal layout, as well as the geometric three dimensional creative compositions.