Turkish designer, Zainab Fadel Oglu designed “Shakerin” mosque, making her the first female architect to design a mosque in the world. Her company for internal designing “ZF” is one of the greatest designing companies in the world. She started her career when she was 12 years old, designed her own jewelries and after excelling the mosque project, she worked on 150 other projects including restaurants, clubs, hotels and entertainment areas.
She told “Arab Today” that, when designing “Shakerin” mosque, she combined between modernity and Ottoman heritage designs and decorated the internal with raindrops chandeliers to make the prayer feels the light of Allah. The mosque’s windows were designed to look like Koran’s pages that are made of gold. The mosque is distinguished for its giant dome that covers the praying area, high minarets and courtyard, while the ceiling is engraved with the name of “Allah”, the prophet name and the names of the companions. She divided the mosque into two areas, one for men and one for women with no difference in designing or space.
She also designed “Friday” mosque and the Golden Mosque in Doha, Qatar. She received many awards for her designs such as, Andrei Martin Interior Design Award for 2002, House & Garden award for 2002, Designer of the Year Award 2005 in London, and the Wifts Foundation Award for 2011. She works with 12 architects and 13 designers to turn her designs into masterpieces.