Mosque of Behrambey Madrasa

Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

At the Madrasa of Behrambey a carefully defined spatial sequence - courtyard, colonnade, multipurpose hall, mosque - leads worshippers from the profane to the sacred. The most important of these four elements, the mosque, is avowedly un-monumental: a cube-like volume with a simple white-walled interior, surmounted by a dome whose laminated timber staves and steel cables evoke the construction of yurts. A band of clerestory windows separates the dome from the walls, and creates the impression that it is floating.