Muslim Academy

In the form of the Muslim Academy Heidelberg, the Teilseiend e. V. initiative has created a place in civic society where scholarship and Muslim communities interact at both the civil-society and architectural levels. The Muslim Academy Heidelberg will be a public and democratic education and debating space that is woven into the fabric of everyday urban life, providing spaces for encounters and also rendering Muslim life visible over and beyond Heidelberg.

»The new build’s architecture should outwardly express the Muslim community’s identification with society as a whole, just as it should be an expression of all Heidelberg citizens’ identification with the pluralist civic society of their city,« is how Deputy Managing Director Yasemin Soylu describes the future building for the think-and-do tank. Today, the initiative with its broad communications and events formats is busy fostering conversations between different social groups.

The IBA provided the occasion and the enabling environment in order for young people to take their socio-political work and form an institution from it that programmatically links participation with built representation in an ambitious manner. The IBA supported the initiators with the institutional set-up of the non-profit organization to drive the initiative, and in joint workshops it helped define the spatial program required and assisted in identifying a location and with planning issues. »The architecture is not religiously defined but seeks to create a space for education in democracy that creates stimuli and drives social change,« explains Yasemin Soylu. The downtown academy will house spaces for conventions and further education, offer overnighting facilities, and feature multipurpose spaces for any manner of activities. In addition, an inviting hospitality outlet is open to the general public. In this way, the Muslim Academy Heidelberg is an educational establishment that is not only unique to Heidelberg but can also be a European role model.