Egyptian architect Waaled Arafa Hassan will be the eleventh speaker in the conference series“Contemporary Religious Architecture in the Mediterranean World” The event is co-organized by the Dominican Studies Institute-Istanbul (Dost-I) and Assoc  Prof.  Dr. Erhan Berat Fındıklı, project manager from the Department of Sociology at Istanbul Medeniyet University with support from Depo Pergamon, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Istanbul, and the Network of Centers for Christian-Muslim Relations (NCCMR). 
Arafa will be talking about his project, Basuna funerary Mosque constructed in 2019 in Sobah in upper Egypt.

Waalad Arafa Hassan sought to combine the contemporary architectural language with vernacular references in his project and located it to the urban context. Hassan designed this mosque not only as place of worship but also as a multipurpose communal space for the dwellers of the neighbourhood. He reinterpreted traditional forms such as, dome, minaret, altar and pulpit with a contemporary and innovative language of design. Ultimately, his project evolved into a work of art that engages in dialogue with the surrounding urban fabric and cemetery.