The Mosque of Imam Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab: Searching into the Identity of Qatar

These days the importance and significance of regional architectural identity has become a current issue. Regionalism is the belief that an architectural work should reflect the characteristics of the region in which it is located. In other words, Regionalism should be the passage for both technology and culture. Unfortunately, in Doha, is struggling with the idea of globalization, and the contradiction in architectural style and appearances. The new buildings (towers and houses) of Doha are trying to represent the modern architecture phenomena; modernity that is associated with westernized manifestation. This modern architecture in the western sense means imposing structure, lacking relevance and ignoring local architecture characteristics. Thus, the disappearances of building traditions have been considered to be something positive. In other words, abandoning the past has become the trend of the current lifestyle. The main objectives of this thesis are to acknowledge and critically analyze the architectural characteristics of The Mosque of Imam Mohammed Abdul-Wahhab. As well, evaluate the success of the mosque of Imam Abdul-Wahhab in achieving the goal of integrating regionalism with modernism to create new identity for the city.