Islamic architectural millwork
Qibla walls, screens and calligraphy for mosques, Islamic schools and institutions. Designed for your building, made in our New Jersey workshop, installed by one team.
Drag to see the qibla wall change. Three buildings, three design languages, one workshop behind them.
Concept renderings. Every space is surveyed and designed to its own proportions.
Our purpose
Every generation of Muslims that settled somewhere new built something beautiful to say they were staying. Here, most of us bought a building and made it work. Sanaa exists for what comes next.
We make the qibla wall, the screens and the calligraphy, in the tradition your community knows or in a modern language built on the same grammar, and we put it in the building you already have.
So that the child who grows up here knows the mosque his grandfather described is on this street. And the neighbour who visits understands, without being told, that this faith is old, serious and beautiful.
"God is beautiful and loves beauty."
What we make
Each piece is drawn to your building, cut and finished in our workshop, and installed by the people who made it. Every one is available in a traditional or a modern language.
The still point of the wall. Carved surround, recessed niche, or a flat panel where the wall cannot be opened.
Solid enough to lean on, carved to be looked at for years. Freestanding or built into the wall.
Pattern, privacy and light in one plane. Partitions, wainscot and ceiling panels in one geometry.
The words the room is for, in wood and brass. Chosen with your imam, drawn by a calligrapher.
The sisters' hall
Most sisters' halls are the room that was available, with a speaker on the wall. We design them as a mosque in their own right.
One backlit panel marks the qibla and gives the room its light. The rest is built around how the room is actually used: a bench under the window, a children's corner with a low shelf, storage for prayer garments, and clear sound from the imam.
Who we serve
The same workshop, the same five elements, sized to the room and the budget in front of you.
The main hall, the sisters' hall, entrances, libraries and signage. Traditional or modern. Phased to your campaign, starting with the mihrab.
Prayer halls, assembly rooms, donor walls and wayfinding that carry one identity through the building.
Prayer rooms for hospitals, universities, airports and offices. A standard system of qibla marker, calligraphy panel and shoe bench, specified with your architect and delivered in weeks.
Reception walls, screens and signage for restaurants, clinics and offices that want the same identity at the door.
How it works
Sanaa is the millwork studio of a licensed New Jersey builder with its own CNC workshop. We draw it, cut it, finish it and install it.
Measure the wall. Listen to what the community wants to feel when they enter.
Drawings, a rendering, a fixed price and a schedule, before anything is cut.
Joined, sanded and finished in our workshop. Visit while it is on the bench.
Our own crew, around the prayer schedule, with a walkthrough before we leave.
Screens and niches lit from within, with the wiring concealed in the joinery.
Panels are made off-site and fitted to the existing wall. The crew clears out before every prayer.
Add screens, a minbar or calligraphy later. Everything is drawn so it belongs together.
Drawings, a rendering of your actual hall, a fixed price for the agreed scope and an installation date. The renderings are yours for the campaign from day one. If conditions or scope change, nothing proceeds without written approval.
Start here
Send a few photos and the approximate size of the room. You will have a first idea and a budget range within the week, at no cost, and a date to walk the building together.
New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
