Islamic Architecture

Islamic Architecture

Project 1

Reflection:

Throughout this project, I think I had understand Islam, muslim and my country more. I started to understand those principal and concept and the spirit of Islamic culture in my country.

Project 2

APA References	Tittle	Keywords	Topic/Discussion	Content
Le Corbusier. (1931). Towards a new architecture. Courier Corporation.	Towards a New Architecture	Light; Geometry; Shape	His arrangement of forms, realizes an order which is pure creation of his spirit; by forms and shapes he affects our senses to an acute degree and provokes plastic emotions; by the relationship which he creates he wakes profound echoes in us, he gives us the measure of an order which we feel to be in accordance with that our world, he determines the various movements of our heart and our understanding; is it then that we experience the sense of beauty.	Mass Our eyes are constructed to enable us to see forms in light. Primary forms are beautiful forms because they can be clearly appreciated. Architects today no longer achieve these simple forms. Working by calculation, engineers employ geometrical forms, satisfying our eye by their geometry and our understanding by their mathematics; Their work is on the direct line of good art. Surface A mass is enveloped in its surface, a surface which is divided up according to the directing and generating lines of the mass; and this gives the mass its individuality. Architects today are afraid of the geometrical constituents of surfaces. The great problems of modern construction must have a geometrical solution. Forced to work in accordance with the strict needs of exactly determined conditions, engineers make use of form-generating and form-defining elements. They create limpid and moving plastic facts. Plan The plan is the generator. Without a plan, you have lack of order and willfulness. The plan holds in itself the essence of sensation. The great problem of tomorrow, dictated by collective necessities, put the question of ‘plan’ in a new form. Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and for the city.
Giedion, S. (1967). Space, time and architecture: the growth of a new tradition. Harvard University Press.	Space, Time and Architecture	Transition of space and time; Spiritual bond	Explores the transition of the spaces and time of the city planning relating back to the user as their spiritual bonding makes the city ‘alive’ by promoting new types of architecture that carry the idea of modernism.	It has in common a space conception, which is as much as part of its emotional as of its spiritual attitude. It is not the independent unrelated form that is the goal of architecture today but the organization of forms in space: space conception. This has been true for all creative periods, including the present. The present space-time conception – the way volumes are placed in space and relate to one another, the way interior space in separated from exterior space or is perforated by it to bring about an interpenetration – is a universal attribute which at the basis of all contemporary architecture. Its emanating force is generated by the respect it has given to the eternal cosmic and terrestrial conditions of a particular region. Instead of being regarded as hindrances these have served as springboards for the artistic imagination. It has often be remarked that the panting of this century has again and again driven boreholes into the past, both to renew contact with spiritual forebears and to draw new strength from these contacts. As in architecture, this is not achieved by adopting the forms of the past but by developing a spiritual bond.
Moffatt, L. (2014). Sacred Concrete: The Churches of Le Corbusier Flora Samuel and Inge Linder-Gaillard. Art and Christianity, (77), 15-17.	Sacred Concrete: The Churches of Le Corbusier	Ethical; Philosophy and Theory of Simplicity	Political relationship between Le Corbusier’s view of religion and that of the Church, as manifested in his radical sacred architecture and the work of other architects who drew inspiration from it.	Its unique strength lies in its co-authorship by Flora Samuel and Inge Linder-Gaillard, architect and art historian, respectively, both with a strong interest in the subject matter. This joint authorship convincingly explores the tense political relationship between Le Corbusier’s view of religion and that of the Church, as manifested in his radical sacred architecture and the work of other architects who drew inspiration from it. Fragmented research on Le Corbusier’s religious belief and the architecture of his sacred buildings can be found in a number of books written by well-known academics in the field; however, this is the first comprehensive scholarly work dedicated to his religious projects, built and unbuilt, and their social, theological and political contexts. Extensive and original research into the roots of Le Corbusier’s sacred ideals and the architectural merits of the associated built forms makes this book useful and highly relevant. The authors invite the readers to take part in a historical journey, through the development and upheavals in the Catholic Church in the early 20th century, with particular emphasis on events in France. The key concerns of Le Corbusier’s sacred architecture in terms of the modernisation of the Church and society; the application of the ethical, philosophical and theological notions of simplicity, poverty and truth in church design; the role of the interplay between space and light as well as the processional route; and the role of art and artists at the service of the Church are all well explained. This is followed by an investigation of the evolution of Le Corbusier’s thinking on religion, from his early upbringing through his spiritual incubation in Paris in the early 20th century and his final maturity.
Dennis,Mc, N.(2015) The Institute For Sacred Architecture: Lecorbusier and the Monastery of La Tourette.	The Institute For Sacred Architecture	Sacred Art; Religious; Faith	Couturier sought to renew sacred art and architecture in much the same way Le Corbusier sought to renew architecture: through the utilization of powerful contemporary forms and materials. As a remedy, Couturier placed his trust in artists, believing something of the sacred.	Le Corbusier’s allusion to the “inner life,” while highly personal, apparently satisfied Couturier. From his early years, Le Corbusier had written of things spiritual, though in wide divergence from Catholic understanding. He claimed in Towards a New Architecture that the modern world needed a “spiritual revolution,” and he called for a “revision of values” and the ‘”mass-production spirit.” The concrete grain silos and coal bins pictured in the book replaced church steeples as symbols of the new age. Nonetheless, Couturier employed Le Corbusier’s “almost religious” architecture as medium for a community with religion at its core. When asked to design other churches after the popular success of La Tourette and his earlier pilgrimage chapel at Ronchamp (1950-55), Le Corbusier stated quite clearly that La Tourette monastery held no particular interest for him as a place for sanctification through a Catholic devotional life. Moreover, this feature of the program actually formed an obstacle to his participation.
Jonathan Glancey (2008), Faith, Hope and Clarity	Faith, Hope and Clarity	Faith; Spiritual Emotion; Clarity; Sacred Architecture	Le Corbusier was the most dangerously radical of all 20th-century architects. In his astonishing polemic Towards an Architecture, published in 1923, he argued that his clean, white, stripped-to-essentials and apparently wholly new architecture reflected the industrial spirit of the times; he also argued that his work inherited the spirit, and even the proportions, of ancient Greek temples and the great cathedrals of the middle ages. Forget the traditionalists and revivalists: his was the true architectural faith.	Le Corbusier's last buildings, including the swooping pilgrimage chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (1950-55), set high on a spur of the Vosges mountains, and the numinous monastery and college of Sainte Marie de la Tourette (1957-60), west of Lyon, were realised on little more than a shoestring. Exquisite, captivating and complex, Ronchamp was hugely controversial when new. It broke all the rules of chaste, geometrical modern buildings; it was as if the master had betrayed his pupils. The monastery, La Tourette, was different again. It was so modestly built - Le Corbusier refused a fee - that today it needs major conservation work to ensure its future. And yet to rebuild it too slickly would be to undermine Le Corbusier's intentions. Many people find La Tourette too bleak, or simply incomprehensible, today. While it has none of the light-spirited delight of Ronchamp and few obvious design thrills, La Tourette's chaste, pared-down architecture is a powerful experience. I have found true peace here myself, settling in for the night in a simple yet perfectly proportioned cell. This is something of the elemental life Le Corbusier wanted everyone to enjoy; he didn't foresee lesser talents adapting his ideas and buildings into grim 1950s housing estates. When I last visited Ronchamp, a woman began singing as she moved under the astonishing concrete crab-shell roof. At once ultra-modern in spirit and as ancient as the hills it rises from, the chapel is a distillation of architecture through history and across cultures. It has no facades, only walls; no straight lines, only curves. Its roof is lifted slightly from the walls to let in shafts of light. Its design owes as much to Le Corbusier's love of the Parthenon in Athens, as to his fondness for the primitive white churches he encountered as a young man in the Aegean. Here is an architecture for all time, connecting past, present and all religious faiths or forms of spirituality.

Interview Questionnaire:

Interviewer 1 : Mr Zahir Wahari

Interviewer 2 : Ms Muzmalini

1.        What do you feel when you walking through the staircases from the entrance?
Interviewer 1:
I felt like I am in curious of the space up there because I can’t see what’s there due to the high staircase yet I like that feeling.

Interviewer 2:
 I feel like welcoming, peaceful and down to the earth. 

2.        Why do you feel so, is it possible because of its lighting and geometrical shape of the mosque?
Interviewer 1:
Perhaps yes, the lighting of this mosque looks like reflecting by the material of the mosque like tiles, the shape of the building is interesting and look majestic to me.

Interviewer 2: This is because of the scale of the staircase is big and the lighting in the top is coming to the staircase give me all of these feeling. To be in the huge space made me feel really calmness and relaxing.

3.        How do you describe the experience of you from entering to pray until leave this mosque?
Interviewer 1:
I felt welcoming and I find peace in this mosque where the pool that surrounding the mosque calm me down and during walking up the praying hall I felt like I put down all my burden for temporary.

Interviewer 2:This mosque is very big and every time I entering to pray make me feel closed to Allah SWT and peaceful. It also made me forget all my problems and just focus to pray.

4.        Does praying at this mosque make you feel closer with god as a Muslim?
Interviewer 1:
Yes it did and I believe most of the mosque did.

Interviewer 2:Yes.
 

5.        In your opinion, what do you of the material used to construct and decorated the mosque?
Interviewer 1:
I think I like the tiles and the decorative although it is not very complicated compare with other mosque.

Interviewer 2:I think they use composite material of glass fibre fabric mixed with epoxy resin to make it durable and light.

6.        Do you think simplicity layout of the mosque will lose its identity?
Interviewer 1:
Absolutely no because Islam will have their identity no matter in what form as long as you are faithful to the god.

Interviewer 2:
No, it’s easy to understand. 

7.        Spiritually, do you think the mosque had made you more faithful to the god?
Interviewer 1:
Yes, the mosque look majestic and I felt humble just by the look.

Interviewer 2:Yes.

8.        Which part of the mosque make you feel closer to the god?
Interviewer 1:
I think it’s the praying hall.

Interviewer 2:The design and geometrical shape of the mosque make me feel closer to the god. Besides that, how the lighting is coming inside the building also such as lighting from heaven and also the interior finishing inside the mosque are using earth colours.
  

9.        Do you prefer the mosque having modern exterior that is way simpler than the traditional design?
Interviewer 1:
It depends, I still prefer traditional design because its eye pleasing.

Interviewer 2:Yes.

10.     Why and is it possible that the simplicity give stronger spiritual emotion to you?
Interviewer 1:
Sometime, maybe. I believe that the emotion is born within your inner self where it is very subjective to judge the emotion since everyone is different.

Interviewer 2:Modern design style is very simple and straight forward.

Reflection:

This project had given me an opportunity to interact and understand about local muslim community and their spiritual sense regarding the mosque. I love this project as it opened an window to the Islamic architecture not only to study but also understanding the concept behind it.



Compilation of the book

Islamic Architecture from Kelvin Ng