RESEARCH ON ABLUTION AREA DESIGN IN MOSQUE
CHAPTER 1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Almost every other country in the world has a minority that follows Islam. As a relatively high percentage of Muslims regularly practice their religious duties, including prayers, there are always needs to design, build, and maintain mosques in various parts of the world. (Mokhtar, 2003, p. 2).
Mokhtar (2003, p. 2) claimed that most of mosque design references, however, focus solely on the design of the praying space of the mosque. They typically ignore the supporting spaces for the mosque. These supporting spaces can be required, such as the toilets and ablution spaces or optional such as a room for body washing for the dead, a library, or a classroom. Within the category of required spaces, toilet design is very much standard and the requirements are well- known to most designers. On the other hand, the ablution spaces are much more challenging in their design because they are needed for a function that many designers may not be familiar with.
As an expected result of such a design environment, there are some well-designed ablution spaces, but there are many more badly designed ones. The bad designs not only cause discomfort in using the space, but can also constitute a safety hazard (Hilliard et al., 1999).
Before defining the possible relationships between the praying area and the ablution area, it is important in designing the circulation and access to mosques and praying areas to define what is design-wise known as the “clean zone.” This definition aims at keeping the praying space free of organic traces, bad smells, and other things that either render the praying space unsuitable for the function or annoy those who are praying or sitting in the praying space. It is important in the design to visually define a line after which people should not be putting on their shoes as these shoes might carry traces of road dirt. (Mokhtar, 2003, p. 5).
Users who are not in ablution state can
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Almost every other country in the world has a minority that follows Islam. As a relatively high percentage of Muslims regularly practice their religious duties, including prayers, there are always needs to design, build, and maintain mosques in various parts of the world. (Mokhtar, 2003, p. 2).
Mokhtar (2003, p. 2) claimed that most of mosque design references, however, focus solely on the design of the praying space of the mosque. They typically ignore the supporting spaces for the mosque. These supporting spaces can be required, such as the toilets and ablution spaces or optional such as a room for body washing for the dead, a library, or a classroom. Within the category of required spaces, toilet design is very much standard and the requirements are well- known to most designers. On the other hand, the ablution spaces are much more challenging in their design because they are needed for a function that many designers may not be familiar with.
As an expected result of such a design environment, there are some well-designed ablution spaces, but there are many more badly designed ones. The bad designs not only cause discomfort in using the space, but can also constitute a safety hazard (Hilliard et al., 1999).
Before defining the possible relationships between the praying area and the ablution area, it is important in designing the circulation and access to mosques and praying areas to define what is design-wise known as the “clean zone.” This definition aims at keeping the praying space free of organic traces, bad smells, and other things that either render the praying space unsuitable for the function or annoy those who are praying or sitting in the praying space. It is important in the design to visually define a line after which people should not be putting on their shoes as these shoes might carry traces of road dirt. (Mokhtar, 2003, p. 5).
Users who are not in ablution state can