One of the criteria of a good mosque is a good quality of building acoustic for some ibadah purposes, such as prayer and Friday speech. Mosques with medium size actually need no reinforcement system yet. Unfortunately, most of Indonesian mosques" typological form were given very little attention about their acoustical problem. Such problems have found in almost every mosques. Therefore, some strategies are needed to fix the problem. Those strategies can be practiced on mosque"s interior surfaces such as ceiling, walls, and floor. One of the strategy is using the absorption material on the wall and the floor, beside using the reflection material on the ceiling. The placement of those materials depends on the path of the sound. The strategy can be used in every form of mosque with only little different treatment in each mosque"s form. With this strategy, it is expected that mosques with medium size will no longer use the reinforcement system, yet the voice still can reach all of the jamaah. Thus this strategy can be used to reduce the use of energy in these buildings.Keywords: Sound, mosque architectural form, acoustic AbstrakMasjid yang baik adalah masjid yang memiliki kualitas akustik yang baik. Masjid-masjid dengan ukuran yang sedang sepatutnya belum membutuhkan sistem penguat tambahan. Walaupun demikian, tipologi bentuk arsitektural masjid di Indonesia tampaknya belum memperhatikan permasalahan-permasalahan akustik yang terjadi. Permasalahan-permasalahan akustik terjadi di hampir setiap masjid. Karenanya, dibutuhkan strategistrategi tertentu untuk memperbaiki permasalahan tersebut. Strategi-strategi itu dapat diaplikasikan pada permukaan-permukaan interior masjid, seperti plafon, dinding, dan lantai. Salah satu strategi yang dapat digunakan adalah menggunakan material-material penyerap suara pada dinding dan lantai, serta menggunakan material pemantul pada plafon. Penempatan material-material tersebut tergantung pada jalur yang dilewati oleh suara. Strategi ini dapat diaplikasikan pada setiap bentuk masjid, namun dengan perlakuan yang berbeda pada masing-masing masjid. Dengan strategi ini, diharapkan masjid-masjid berukuran sedang tidak akan membutuhkan sistem penguat untuk menjadikan suara mampu mencapai setiap jamaah di dalam ruang, sehingga bangunan masjid yang bersangkutan dapat menghemat penggunaan energi.

Mualaf is the term to represent people who just moves to Islam from other religion. Mualaf Center is an important place for mualaf to get information aboutIslam. There are some reasons and factors that make a not-Moslem hesitates about their religion and decides to move to Islam. These circumstances make them need a psychological and economical guidance as the effects after they become mualaf. There are 6.3% from total citizen becomes mualaf in Malaysia. This number is in the not-Moslem society, so the effect of becoming mualaf can be perceived especially the psychological and economical effects. Therefore, mualaf center can be a good place for mualaf to get a guidance and consultation. This paper discusses mualaf center design based on the issues and problems about mualaf in Malaysia. The aim of this study is to find a recommendation design for mualaf center based on the issue in Malaysia. The discussion uses literature study method which will be analyzed descriptively. So the result of the discussion is a summary of design criteria that proper with the issue. This design criterion will be integrated using relevant design theme approach, i.e. sustainable architecture. The design criteria that is already integrated is the availability of guidance and consultation facilities, also entrepreneur practice facility toward psychological and economical effects. With by the guidance in this mualaf center, the mualaf will be capable of adapting to the social environment around them and also can rebuild their economic life as before in islamic ways.

As one of the prominent public spaces for the community, Mosque is considered one of the high energy consumption buildings. Many modern mosques are designed and built without respecting the contextual environment, resulting in a non-environmental friendly Mosque. In Malaysia, the operating cost of mosques is majorly relying on public funds, and statistically are high specifically for electricity usage. Due to the use of air conditioners in cooling down the huge prayer hall due to the non-environmental design consideration. Hence, it is crucial to justify sustainable design approaches in mosques to develop environmentally friendly mosques. On the other side, the environmentally friendly mosque design is important as one of the monumental Islamic symbols that shall manifest Islam's values and philosophies towards the benefits of 'Alam' (world). The main objective of this study is to analyze the principles of Islamic methods in attaining the attributes of sustainable mosque design. It systematically reviews the existing publications to discover the concepts, definitions, and issues regarding the sustainable design approach-es for Mosque. Based on the conducted reviews, sustainable design strategies for mosques are suggested at the end of this paper. The Mosque can use some renewable technologies to save energy and be concerned about the climate condition for its design. Furthermore, it can also use sustainable materials, use natural ventilation and daylighting to provide good indoor air quality and be concerned about the social life of Muslim's religious activities.

This paper aims to compare these two different methods, which one is better yet easier to be used by the local community. This paper adopts a content analysis method in order to achieve the research objectives on bamboo as a sustainable construction material. The variables are determine better ways with low cost, short period of time, and the procedure of the treatment. This paper shows that the natural treatment for bamboo is better and much more friendlier to be practised by the local communities. Results of this study also inform that the procedures are complicated as compared to the chemical treatment but, it can be done easily by the local people who has more understanding of how to work with bamboo. The time needed for this natural process is the same as the chemical treatment, but the cost is cheaper. This study highlighted the importance of using the natural bamboo treatment for construction industry in Indonesia.

Abstract. Noise is one of the problems that often occur in urban areas due to the traffic condition. Noise in a building design depends on the choice of materials as sound absorbers. The type of sound dampening material that already exists is a porous material, a resonator, and a panel. The material often used as an absorber is porous materials, because it is relatively cheaper and lighter, especially to reduce the noise in the narrow spaces such as housing and offices. Various substitutes are made from cheap materials, such as the use of recycled materials of egg tray paper with the size of 40 x 40 centimeters. The objective of this research is to find the ability of this waste paper in reducing noises. The method used in this research is field measurement using a Sound Level Meter in a model. The use of the egg tray paper is able to show an adequate acoustic quality as noise absorbers, with the average value of NR 22-26 dB.