Despite being home to over 4,000 Muslims, Cambridge has never been able to boast a purpose-built mosque. However, designs have now been revealed for a brand new £13 million mosque which will be able to accommodate over 1,000 Muslim men and women.

The design captures elements of both the modern and the traditional, with the contemporary interior being based upon “tree-like” columns supporting high ceilings which will create a sense of space and relaxation. However, the exterior brick-work will be carefully chosen to match the surrounding traditional Victorian terraced houses, in order to be in architectural unity with the rest of the area.

Award-winning London architectural company Marks Barfield, designers of the London Eye, are due to submit planning schemes in 2010.

It is intended that the mosque will be a centre for the community. For example, the mosque will include a café, teachings areas and meetings rooms which will cater equally for Muslims and non-Muslims. Significantly, this sense of unity could prove useful as a tool of integration and education for non-Muslims regarding the nature and practises of Islam.

Dr Tim Winter, chairman of the Muslim Academic Trust said: “The new mosque will be a real neighbourhood as well as a spiritual centre, easily accessible...with facilities for formal and informal community group meetings as well as a leisure destination.”

Dr Winter added that the mosque is to be “respectful of the neighbourhood”. Indeed, it is due to be highly environmentally conscious, with plans to use only efficient and locally generated energy from ground heat pumps and it to be lit naturally throughout the year.

Currently, worshippers use a converted supermarket warehouse on Mawson Road, which can hold just 500 people, a mere one-eighth of all the Muslims in Cambridge.