Djamaâ El Djazaïr—The Great Mosque of Algeria

Jan Akkermann, Prof., Dr., Civil Eng., Managing Partner; Alexander Hewener, Civil Eng., Director; Dan Constantinescu,
Prof., Dr., Civil Eng., KREBS+KIEFER Ingenieure, Karlsruhe, Germany. Contact: akkermann.jan@kuk.de
DOI: 10.2749/101686615X14210663188619

Abstract
In Algiers, the world’s third largest
mosque whose minaret will be the
highest in the world is presently under
construction. The complex will form a
new urban focus. Because of the monu-
mental importance of the building, the
durability requirements are extremely
high. As Algiers is located in a strong-
motion earthquake area, the structural
design of the building has followed the
latest construction methods. The prayer
hall will be totally decoupled from the
seismic ground by isolators and damp-
ers. The minaret will be a high-rise
building with a composite structure of
reinforced concrete (RC) cores and
integrated dissipation steel bracings.
Special push-over analyses were per-
formed for its design. The construction
started in 2012 and is scheduled to be
completed in 2016. This paper presents
the outstanding project and describes
the main structural design aspects.
Keywords: earthquake design; base
isolation; viscous damping; durability;
mosque; spun concrete; cupola.
design, an understanding of the archi-
tectural idea is essential. The concept
of the mosque complex provides an
increasing closeness of the buildings
to figure out the development of the
open contact with the surrounding city
quarter to a contemplative isolation of
the holiest place, the prayer hall itself.
Starting at the esplanade with its open,
very slender and, therefore, transpar-
ent peristyles, the mosque complex is
freely accessible via a number of stair-
ways. Providing free access to the pub-
lic, the minaret is vertically structured
in five levels interrupted by a so-called
sky foyer, giving the tower a certain
slenderness and transparency. The
court has a closed and severely sym-
metric layout. Finally, the prayer hall
with its three set-back levels (Fig. 2)—
hall, cube and cupola—symbolises
outward closeness. In contrast to the
external appearance, right from the
start the architectural design provided
a very high spatial transparency to the
inner prayer hall to emphasise con-
templative and transcendental aspects
(Fig. 4).
As Algiers is located in a strong-motion
earthquake area (VIII–IX at the
Modified Mercalli Scale), the design
of buildings is, in general, influenced
greatly by seismic effects. Following
the design concept of the architecture,
the combination of slenderness and
transparency with the requirements
of sufficient stiffening and robustness
was the major challenge for the struc-
tural design. As shown in the following
section, for each aspect an individual
solution based on recent design tech-
nologies was developed. Because of the
high demand for durability and robust-
ness over a long period, solutions with
relatively easy maintenance aspects
and a high reliability were chosen.

Introduction
With the project Great Mosque of
Algeria, the Algerian State has started
the process of constructing a new
national landmark building in com-
bination with the development of the
urban quarter of Mohamadia at a dis-
tance of approximately 500 m from
the Bay of Algiers. The mosque itself
(Fig. 1) will be the third largest in the
world. The gross floor surface will be
400 000 m², and about 120 000 visitors
are expected daily. The minaret, con-
taining a museum, scientific research
facilities and a visitor’s platform, will
be the largest in the world, and with a
height of 265 m, it will be the highest
building in Africa to date. The complex
(Figs. 2, 3) will also contain a conven-
tion centre, a library and a university.

Architecture and Earthquake

Design
For an explanation of the chosen struc-
tural systems, especially the seismic Fig. 1: Visualisation of the mosque

224 Technical Report Structural Engineering International 2/2015


Fig. 2: Longitudinal section with main dimensions
Mediterranean sea
Minaret
Esplanade
Qibla-axis
Congress centre
Library
Fig. 3: Site plan of the complex
Site Seismicity
As a result of the disastrous 2003
Bourmedes earthquake, which left
over 2000 people dead and 200 000
homeless, the national Algerian design
code Règles Parasismiques Algeriennes
(RPA) was adapted to the latest, glob-
ally used design rules. In the RPA, the
highest value of the peak ground accel-
eration (PGA) is 0.4 g (including the
importance factor). The application of
the RPA is restricted to “conventional”
buildings with a height of up to 200 m.
Advanced seismic protection devices
such as base isolators or damping
elements are not used. Therefore, in
agreement with the national ministries
of religious affairs (responsible for the
project) and habitation (responsible
for building codes), the application of
the Eurocodes, especially EC 8, was
adopted for the project.
Structural Engineering International 2/2015
+ 265 m
600 m
Court Prayer hall
Technical facilities
Mecca
Administration
fire station
University
KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten
Because of the importance of the pro-
ject, a site-specific seismic risk analy-
sis was carried out. Supported by a
microzonation study based on a spe-
cial ground investigation campaign,
the PGA and the distinctive values
for the curved shape of a specific site
spectrum were defined as the basis for
further calculations. With an increased
PGA of 0.65 g, a maximum elastic
response of up to 1.9 g was obtained
(Fig. 5).
Prayer Hall
Following the architectural design
concept of high transparency, all inner
shear walls or bracings had to be
avoided. The total stiffening system
had to be realised only by the surfaces
of the building. This boundary condi-
tion led to a jointless spatial stiffening
system obtained by the interplay of the
+ 72.0 m
+ 45.0 m
+ 22.5 m
+ 0.0 m
150 m
Fig. 4: Interior view of the prayer hall
cupola with the roof and the wall dia-
phragms in case of horizontal forces
(Fig. 6). The vertical loads result-
ing from the moments in the shear
walls will be transferred by the inner
columns.
With a ground surface of 145 m × 145
m and a height of 70 m, the prayer hall
can accomodate up to 32 000 people.
From the outer cupola with a slightly
ellipsoidal super-elevation and a span
of 52 m, an inner cupola will be sus-
pended. Thus, the folded shape of the
inner cupola will follow the octagonal
capitals of the inner columns (Fig. 4).
Because of the complex spatial stiffen-
ing system, the high slenderness of the
inner columns bearing the cupola with
a free height up to 40 m and the high
demand for the safety of the people
and the integrity of the monument in
case of an earthquake, the solution of
Technical Report 225
base-isolating the whole building was
chosen.
Following the well-known principle,1
that base-isolated buildings should
consist of (1) a rigid basement with the
main part of the building mass and (2)
a lightweight structure at rising height,
the load-bearing structures were
divided into two major parts2 (Fig. 7):
1. Basement, ground floor and mez-
zanine: designed as reinforced con-
crete (RC) floors, columns and shear
walls (mass, approx. 145 000 t),
2. Second level: cube, roofs and cupola:
designed as a spatial steel truss
(mass, approx. 17 000 t).
3.0
Elastic spectral acceleration (g)
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0 1
Fig. 5: Elastic response site-spectrum
Horizontal forces
(wind and earthquake)
Vertical moment due to
lever arm of vertical forces
Horizontal moment due to
lever arm of horizontal forces
Fig. 6: 3-D stiffening system of the prayer hall
226 Technical Report
While allowing for a lower weight,
the choice of a spatial steel truss for
the upper structures also allowed for
the combination of the stiffening with
the modelling of the complex’s inner
surface geometry and the roof’s and
façade’s application.
For the base isolation, a system of
246 sliding-isolation-pendulum (SIP)
bearings3 was chosen for performance,
durability and maintenance reasons.
This type of bearing provides:
− low friction coefficients with the
ability of re-centring,
− a long life-cycle—even after minor
earthquake loading,
CGS: mean value calculated
CGS: mean value + sigma
CGS: mean value - sigma
Proposition KSP/K+K
Max Se = 18.8 m/s2
2 3 4 for wind loads into account, the cal-
Period (s)
External forces
Inner forces
Horizontal forces due
to horizontal moment
Vertical forces due
to vertical moment
Structural Engineering International 2/2015
− low degradation because of ageing,
− full replacement in case of damage.
A base isolation system that shifts the
first natural period of the structure
from T1 = 0.85 s to T1 = 3.1 s was cho-
sen, resulting in a significant decrease
in response acceleration in the design
spectrum (Fig. 5).
The bearings are located between the
foundation slab and the basement
floor (Figs. 8–10). The position of the
isolators was mainly based on the
column axes. The basement consists
of a shear wall grid to ensure the load
transfer between the single isolators
by a rigid-box system. The foundation
slab connects the footings under the
isolators and the surrounding walls
with a height of up to 8 m.
Using SIP isolators, the effective isola-
tion stiffness Kb consists of two parts3:
the re-centring force caused by the
curvature of the bearing and a fric-
tion force. On the one hand, a small
dynamic friction coefficient µ leads to
a lower stiffness and, therefore, a bet-
ter isolation. Furthermore, high fric-
tion restrains the re-centring. On the
other hand, a certain sticking friction is
advantageous to ensure the stability of
the building under wind loads. Taking
only the friction coefficient necessary
culations resulted in design displace-
ments of up to 1 200 mm, which was too
high for the building’s HVARC con-
nections and the access points. Hence,
additional hydraulic damping devices
were provided (Fig. 8). Viscous, instead
of friction, dampers were chosen
because they provide forceless reac-
tions to temperature-induced displace-
ments of the basement. Furthermore,
because of their velocity dependence,
they develop the maximum forces dur-
ing oscillations with phase shift to the
re-centring forces of the isolators.
Finally a system consisting of:
− 246 SIP isolators with a curvature
radius of 2.4 m and a dynamic fric-
tion coefficient of 3%
− 80 hydraulic dampers (40 in each
x,y-direction) with damping expo-
nent a = 0.4
was chosen. With this system, hori-
zontal design displacements of up to
600 mm were calculated as a base for
the detailed planning.
− For architectural and durability rea-
sons, the inner columns of the prayer
hall (Fig. 4) are made of spun con-
crete with octagonal sections and a
 width of 810 mm for the mezzanine
region and 1620 mm for the higher
inner region. With precast spun con-
crete (i.e. rotating the formwork
Roof / cube / cupola
during hardening), a very dense con-
crete surface and a high resistance
Steel can be achieved. The same type of
(approx. 17 000 t) column is used for all the peristyles
exposed to the atmosphere to satisfy
the high durability requirements.
Basement / ground floor / The octagonal capitals of the col-
mezzanine umns will be shaped by a steelwork
Reinforced concrete substructure with a lightweight clad-
ding (Fig. 4).
(approx. 145 000 t)
The spatial steel-truss (Fig. 7) of the
Foundation slab / retaining wall roof and the cupola structure will
consist mainly of conventional hot
Reinforced concrete
rolled profiles with bolted joints that
can be easily assembled at the con-
Fig. 7: Composition of load-bearing structures, prayer hall struction site. For maintenance rea-
sons, all structural elements will be
Sliding isolation Viscous damper Socle on accessible by stairs and catwalks.
pendulum (SIP) foundation
Basement The cupola will be formed by outer
(Fig. 8) and inner shell structures
(Figs. 7 and 8) built by spatial grids.
2.00

Foundation slab At the outer ellipsoidal cupola, the

Outer cupola shell shell segments will be fixed at 8 steel
+72.0 m Inner cupola shell arcs that will be supported by 16 spun
concrete columns (Fig. 7). The inner
cupola with a folded surface will be
Columns d = 1.61 m suspended from the outer one by high-
+45.0 m spun concrete
strength rods.

+22.5 m
Minaret
Based on a foundation slab with a sur-
face area of 50 m × 50 m, the tower has
+0.0 m a quadratic section with a side length
of 26.8 m up to the height of 223.8 m.

Fig. 8: Seismic devices under the prayer hall

Fig. 9: Prayer hall under construction Fig. 10: SIP-Isolator under basement

Structural Engineering International 2/2015 Technical Report 227

On top of the minaret, a traditional
Mahgrebian Soummah, a short tower
with smaller width and a cupola, has
been built. This tower is encased in a
steel–glass façade.
Because of the high seismic forces, the
tower section is expanded by a shear
wall system over two basement levels
to the foundation slab dimension. With
a height of 3 m, the slab itself will be
supported by a system of 60 barrettes,
i.e. diaphragm walls with cross-sections
of 7.2 m × 1.2 m and depths of 43 m.
The stiffening system of the rising
structure is obtained by a composite
structure of four RC cores at the cor-
ners and slabs with a beam girder, also
made of RC, as well as a stiffening sys-
tem of steel profiles embedded in the
RC cores and X-shaped bracings at the
vertical surfaces (Fig. 11). To accentu-
ate the two-level-high sky foyers, no
bracings were arranged there. This led
to a combined system of a truss and a
Vierendeel’s cantilever beam. With this
composite system, the slenderness of
the tower became approx. h/d = 10.
The first natural frequency of the tower
was already low. Thus, a base isolation
was not constructive. Furthermore,
a lifting from the bearings because
of the overturning moment under
high seismic loads was not avoidable.
Therefore, a system of three catego-
ries for the structural members’ seis-
mic behaviour verified by a push-over
analysis (Figs. 12 and 13) was instead
chosen.4 Following the strategy of
capacity design, the steel bracings were
designed as energy-dissipating mem-
bers that yield before the foundation
fails.
+ 265.0 m
Soummah
+ 223.8 m
Sky foyer
+ 0.0 m RC: Steel: Composite
– 14.5 m cores + bracings = structure
Barrettes floors façade
– 57.5 m
Fig. 11: Minaret: vertical section and com-
posite structure
228 Technical Report
The load bearing structure consisted
of three categories of seismic resisting
systems:
− Highly dissipative members (HDM):
structural elements that will be the
first to yield and hence, they have
“Fuses” S235
highly dissipative
S355
less dissipative
RC cores:
low dissipative
Foundation:
elastic
Fig. 12: Minaret: categories of seismic
behaviour
Progressive collapse of bracings
TD = target displacement
Seismic load
Design of high
ductile members
Top displacement
Fig. 13: Push-over analysis of minaret
Structural Engineering International 2/2015
to possess a high ductility. They will
dissipate most of the energy and
will also act as “fuses” within the
structure by limiting the internal
forces.
− Less dissipative members (LDM):
structural elements that will suffer
small, respectively moderate plas-
tic deformation during the design
earthquake.
− Elastic members (EM): structural
elements that will remain elastic
during the design earthquake.
Within the bracings, parts of the steel
profiles (Fig. 12) will act as HDM, and
hence were designed in steel grade S235
while the other parts were designed
in S355. Also, the core-coupling RC
beams of the floor were designed as
HDM. The RC cores were designed as
LDM while the foundation structures,
that is shear walls, slab and barrettes
were designed as EM.
Construction Stages
Beginning in 2012, the whole com-
plex was erected in parallel. Thus the
basement of the prayer hall was cast
directly on the bearings. Once the RC
structure was finished, the upper steel
structure was assembled with prefab-
ricated segments. For the minaret, a
special climbing formwork was used
for the integration of the prefabricated
steel braces (Fig. 14) into the cores.
Design of elastic
members
Design of low
ductile members
TD 1.5TD
 References
[1] Kelly J. The theory and development of seis-
mic isolation and its implementation, paraseis-
mic systems work days. Ministry of Religious
Affairs, Algiers, February 28–March 3, 2009.
[2] Akkermann J, Hewener A. The Great
Mosque of Algeria—Seismic design of a
monument. Proceedings of the 37th IABSE
Symposium, Madrid, Spain, 2014.
[3] Huber P, Medeot R, Tuncer M. Seismic
protection of three recently constructed build-
ings by seismic isolation with sliding isola-
tion pendulum devices. 10th World Conference
on Seismic Isolation, Energy Dissipation and
Active Vibrations Control of Structures, Istanbul,
Turkey, May 27–30, 2007.
[4] Constantinescu D, Koeber D. The Minaret
of the Great Mosque in Algiers, a structural
challenge. Open J. Civil Eng. 2013; 3: 27–39, doi:
10.4236/ojce.2013.32A004.

Fig. 14: Embedded bracing of the minaret

Conclusion
SEI Data Block
Besides the enormous dimension of
the project and the demand for dura- Owner:
bility, the major challenge for the Agence Nationale de Réalisation et de Gestion de la Mosquée d‘Algerie
structural design of the Great Mosque Structural design:
of Algeria was the apparent contradic- KREBS+KIEFER Ingenieure GmbH, Germany
tion between the architectural idea General planning:
of transparency and slenderness and KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten/KREBS+KIEFER International
the seismic design in an area of high Contractor:
seismicity. However, following the China State Construction (CSCEC)
design principles for seismic isolation
and capacity design and using both Estimated cost (EUR billions): 1.2
intelligent and robust constructions, Construction Date: 2012–2016
this objective has been achieved.

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Structural Engineering International 2/2015 Technical Report 229