When 41 Muslim graves had to be moved from a cemetery due to a highway expansion, the client decided to build a Muslim wash and prayer house and add 100 new graves. The new construction was a single-storey building located in the middle of a Christian cemetery built in 1957. The building and the burial grounds "oriented towards Mecca" are united under a large roof: a mortuary and washing room, a prayer room, two separate entrances leading to waiting rooms (with bathrooms for females and males) and an outdoor covered area dedicated to prayers for rites of passage. The design looked for brick constructions common to both traditional Islamic and Hanseatic architecture. For example, a great many buildings in Hamburg are made of "clinker", or bricks made at high temperatures, which is reflected in the bright sandstone or clay facades often featured in Muslim buildings.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture
