O people of the world! Build ye houses of worship
throughout the lands in the name of Him Who is the
Lord of all religions. Make them as perfect as is possible
in the world of being, and adorn them with that which
befitteth them, not with images and effigies. Then,
with radiance and joy, celebrate therein the praise of
your Lord, the Most Compassionate. Verily, by His 30
remembrance the eye is cheered and the heart is filled
with light. [Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 29]
And Shoghi Effendi explained that these Houses of Worship may be surrounded by "such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the suffering, sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the bereaved, and education to the ignorant." [Shoghi Effendi, Baha'i Administration, p. 184]
Based on some details provide for how they should be built, and since I have an interest in city planning, I created this theoretical model for how one might be laid out:
The full picture can be seen here: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zRYvWig1yu0/S5hFdFnOPyI/AAAAAAAAAGw/k7-glvejOqI/s640/A%20Mashriqu%27l-Adhkar%20layout%202%20-%20a%20plan%20view%20-%20draft%2011.png
The light green areas indicate a suggestion for grass, the dark green areas for garden, and the white towers in-between the House of Worship and the dependencies are viewing towers where people can sit, an idea which I took from Shoghi Effendi's creation of a viewing tower for the mansion of Bahji. Most of the paths between the structures and gardens are not shown, they go in-between each structure with nine leading into the House of Worship itself, I managed to create one which can be used for reference.
I try to turn ideas I have into something concrete as soon soon as possible, as 'Abdu'l-Baha said "thoughtlessness breeds forgetfulness." I think this was a good test of whether city planning will be a good career for me. So far it might be. I didn't have the inclination to aesthetics and detail-mindedness to decide what shape the towers should be or where exactly the fountains should go (somewhere in-between each of the paths leading into the House of Worship) but was thinking about traffic flow and density and distances people would have to travel, though I still haven't solved how to decrease the long distance between the parking areas (not shown on this draft, they would be across a street around the whole area, their aesthetic isn't as important) and the House of Worship. An underground tunnel with an escalator-like track might solve the problem. I also found that I was considering the experiences people would have walking around various parts of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, using comparisons from things and pictures I had seen before, so with experience I might be able to do well at that. I didn't think as much about maintenance tunnels, ease of gardening (though I did consider that there would need to be gardeners, janitors, etc.), and that kind of thing but that might just be lack of training. I intentionally tried to include as much green space as possible around each of the dependencies because I knew that college students, children, and older people at least would enjoy the area for various activities and just sitting in the sun. I also considered adding orchard trees to those grassy areas, but I think that would just be being manically efficient and purposeful. All in all I think if I can learn some practical skills and thinking, because I didn't think about planning the parking lot either, it might be a career fit.
P.S. Looking at it now, an idea I had while making the drawing to make triangular or nearly triangular parking areas between the dependencies, which looking at it now looks like they would fit which I wasn't sure if they would before. They would solve part of the distance problem, but they would have to be designated as parking for handicapped people and people going to the House of Worship only with parking across the street for the dependencies so too many people didn't park there.
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