Applying Sustainability Standards to the Interior Architecture of

Mosques

A Study Proposal Submitted For A master's Degree in the Design

Department (Interior Architecture).

By

Supervision

2022-2023
 Chapter One
Introduction
1. Background
The mosque are built on earth and its aim will be towards the sky, and the
appearance of the mosque will reduce the image of Islam in the eyes of the non-
Muslim. It is the place of worship . It was converted into a mosque, while it was
previously only stored distinctive, but it may appear strange or manufactured, just
as it is surprising to see a crescent hanging on the tower of a building that does not
usually resemble minarets, except when worshipers seek to perform prayers on
Fridays and holidays (Taha, 2007).

As a result of the influence of mosques and their architecture on the environments

in which they were built, they appeared with different designs, preserving their
essence, as the design of mosques in the far reaches of Asia, it differs from it in the
far reaches of Morocco, just as the appearance of the mosques in Istanbul is not the
same as that of a mosque in Damascus or Cordoba (Al-Dabarki, 1999).

It is the truth that began to take shape as a result of several factors, not only in the
West, but throughout the earth and throughout history, as it is built in the various
environments to which Islam reached or Muslims migrated to. power of the Islamic
state. The architecture of mosques is a result of various factors, so it borrowed
from the environment and from the old and modern European architecture, and
some of them became similar to European buildings. With its modern designs, its
journey back to the origin (Ibrahim and Ibrahim, 1986).

There are those who believe that the matter has nothing to do with geography, in a
world that has folded the borders between East and West. Logical historical
development led architects in the West and their counterparts orientals, (Taha,
2007) to innovate new designs, taking advantage of modern technologies and their
enormous potential, which facilitated its death before it turned into a mosque. The
building is all of unique architecture.

One of the virtues of Islam is its flexibility, as it did not impose special conditions
or a specific design for building mosques, as much as it set general controls that
define its essential identity, the most important of which is purity and the direction
of the Qiblah. For decades, the Muslims who immigrated to the West remained
content and sitting in prayer in basements and buildings that were abandoned
warehouses or factories, believing that their stay in the West was temporary, and
they did not think that their return would be long, until they found themselves
faced with a fact that must be recognized, that is, That this temporary homeland
has turned into an alternative and permanent homeland, and that they and their
children and grandchildren will live in this country. Therefore, they decided to
have mosques in places worthy of the houses of God, and to raise minarets in their
new countries, in which they enjoy all the rights and duties of citizenship, which
resented Westerners who are accustomed to the presence of Muslims on the
margins of society. This and other factors led to the development of the way of life
and patterns of behavior among Muslims, from the home to public life, including
the mosque in order to integrate into the new society (Ibrahim, 2007).

Mosques in the world in general and in Western countries in particular represent

one of the most important images that reflect the coexistence of religions, in which
religious rites and social activities are practiced. Achieving the dimensions of
sustainability in it has become one of the most common architectural trends among
developed countries. Therefore, the clarity of its identity to the recipient as an
Islamic architecture has become one of the most important axes that must be taken
into account in the design, because the multiple sustainability solutions may have a
profound impact on the general form of mosque architecture and thus cause the
loss of part or all of its identity as an Islamic architecture clearly read by all
segments of society. This represented the general problem of research.

1.1. Study Problem

The research problem was identified by the cognitive deficiency in the impact of
the concept of sustainability on the clarity of the identity of contemporary Islamic
mosques. The aim of the research is to reach design and technical principles that
are recommended to be used in the architecture of contemporary mosques, with a
special focus on the interior architecture of mosques, in a manner that serves the
achievement of sustainability in all its aspects without covering the features of its
identity as an Islamic architecture.

1.2. Study objectives

 Preserving Islamic tradition and identity in architecture and interior design.
 Using diverse locations to access the many environmental vocabularies and
materials that have changed in the various contexts of Islamic architecture.
 Making use of the diverse lexicon of the Islamic cultural history to create
designs for sustainable materials that represent the legacy and Islamic
identity.
 Researching the connections between Islamic architectural tradition and
environmentally friendly design.
1.3. Study Importance
 In order to maintain the history and identity of Islam via variety and the
impact of the environment, it is important to highlight the architectural
heritage of Islamic architectural genius in many nations.
  To foster the intellectual development of the Islamic legacy via the
multiplicity of its sources and the diversity of the diverse locations from
which it was born.
1.4. Literature Review
 Al-Sarraf (2015) study of the Architecture of Islamic Centers in Western
Countries:

The study focused on the design mechanisms of the architecture of Islamic centers
in Western countries, including the mechanism of hybridization and its impact on
the general composition of the mosque from the schematic and formal side. The
importer takes forms and elements borrowed from the traditional Muslim
architecture and tries to employ them in the new architecture, the adaptive design,
which depends in its structures and elements on the architecture of the country in
which the design of the Islamic Center will be located, and the harmonic design
that merges between the imported and the adaptive design that aims to produce a
harmonious formula between the two ).

 Al-Qattan (2016) study "Towards a Contemporary Concept of

Environmental Sustainability in Islamic Architecture":

For environmental sustainability, and linking it to the huge amount of concepts and
standards of Arab-Islamic architecture, by applying the contemporary concept of
sustainability to Arab-Islamic architecture, taking into account cultural and social
specificity.

 The study of Al-Obeidi (2017) "Factors Influencing Contemporary Mosque

Architecture Trends:

The study concludes to reach the factors affecting mosque architecture trends in
general, which are the ideological factor, the environmental factor, the aesthetic
factor and the technological factor), which resulted in multiple styles of mosque
architecture and according to the predominance of one factor over another, and
from One of these trends is the trend of sustainable mosques.

 Al-Zubaidi's (2018) study "The Principles of Sustainability in Traditional

Architecture According to the Islamic Perspective:

The research focused on the concept of sustainability in the references of

traditional architecture in general and housing in particular, by reviewing the
relationship between man and the environment and preserving it in the Islamic
perspective to extract the principles of sustainability in planning the traditional
city and The residential unit, which was represented by cohesion, containment,
the broken entrance, the air intakes, the central courtyard, the thickness of the
walls, the orientation, and the choice of appropriate colors and other multiple
processors.

 Al-Qadi et al.,(2019) study the role of "mosque architecture in rooting the

concepts of sustainability in contemporary Arab cities":

The study focused on the concept of rationalization in the architecture of

mosques in the past, and the possibility of applying the concept in the
architecture of contemporary mosques in Arab cities from the aspects
(environmental, social, economic, architectural, urban) and the possibility of
Consolidate the concepts of rationalization among the architects and those in
charge of the architecture of the mosques that will be built recently, with the
necessity of gradually moving the existing mosques to implement these
concepts in them. It also analyzed the principles of sustainable architecture
according to the three concepts (environmental, social, and economic) in
mosque architecture in general.
 1.5. Literature Gap

The analysis of previous studies shows the breadth of the subject and the generality
of the previous proposition, as various aspects related to sustainability in
traditional and contemporary mosques were addressed without addressing the
impact of the concept of sustainability on the clarity of the identity of Islamic
mosques. Which leads us to the research problem represented by the lack of
knowledge in the impact of the concept of sustainability on the clarity of the
identity of Islamic mosques, especially in the interior architecture.

1.6. Methodology

Analytical descriptive approach: The researcher relies on the use of the descriptive
approach, relying on the analytical method for the elements of the interior
architecture of a group of mosques, and analyzing the extent of the impact of
sustainability standards in each of: Egypt - Iraq - Syria - Spain - Russia - India -
West Africa.

1.7. Study Conceptual Framework

 Mosque :
 Sustainability Standards;
 Interior Architecture:
1.8. Study Structure
 Chapter one : An introduction includes
 Chapter Two :
 Chapter Three :
 Chapter Four :
 Chapter Five :
 References
References