Needs and wants in mosque architecture

Abstract

Generally, the study on mosque architecture focuses partly on classifying mosque forms or exploring the historical, socio-cultural, and political meanings behind the architectural design of mosques. This study puts forward a new concept of an interesting relationship between the needs of Islamic ritual activities and the wants of certain traditions that underlie the diversity of mosque architectural forms in Indonesia. Therefore, the search for these two essential aspects of mosque architecture is important to position the diversity of mosque architectural forms in the context of architectural design that continues to evolve. In line with these issues, this study analyzes the concepts of needs and wants that underlie the design of traditional, and contemporary mosques in West Java. The analysis process is carried out by comparing ideograms that represent the concept of the need for Islamic fiqh-based ritual activities, with typograms that represent the elements of the scope and mosque space in the study cases. Furthermore, the analysis results show that the expression of the architectural form of the mosque in each case study is more influenced by the wants of the pious congregation and the personal wants of the architect.

The dynamics of meaning in mosque architecture: A case study of old and modern mosques in West Java Indonesia

“…The first step: Comparison of property and composition of mosque architecture in the scope of architectural anatomy The process of comparing property concepts and the composition of ideograms and typograms was described in a study published in previous journal (Wirakusumah, Antariksa, and Salura 2021). The assessment strategy involves using a semantic scale as presented in table 1 with the range divided into 4 parts which include : (1) overall facts and data (typogram) of properties and mosque composition are in accordance with ideogram , (2) the properties of the mosque in line with the ideogram but adjusted to its composition, (3) the main properties based on ideogram but some additional are being added, and (4) facts and data (typogram) of the properties and composition of the mosque do not match the ideogram at all.…”

“…The steps used in this study starts from those used in the previous studies to juxtapose ideograms in the form of needs and typograms in the form of desires in the architecture of modern and traditional mosques in West Java (Wirakusumah, Antariksa, and Salura 2021). The concept of the ideogram contains the intention of meaning (Krenz 2010) derived from the elaboration between the rules of prayer in Islam and the scope of architectural anatomy in describing spatial properties and composition.…”

“…Mosque architecture is a worship building attached to the process of interpreting static ritual arrangements which are summarized as basic needs and a series of desires for dynamically moving individuals (Wirakusumah, Antariksa, and Salura 2021). The movements between static and dynamic points have the ability to show the meaning contained in a mosque building.…”

“…These phenomena show that the main issue is determining the method to read the meaning in mosque architecture using Function-Form-Meaning diagrams that move on a static range of needs (ideograms) and dynamic desires (typograms). This present study was conducted as a continuation of a published paper entitled "Needs and Wants in Mosque Architecture: A Study of Traditional and Modern Mosques in West Java-Indonesia" (Wirakusumah, Antariksa, and Salura 2021) in order to deepen the results from the research. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to reveal the dynamics of meaning in mosque architecture using the comparison between needs (ideograms) and desires (typograms) in mosque architecture determined through the Function-Form-Meaning reading framework in exoteric and esoteric realms from the previous study as the main reference.…”

“…Figure 7. The result of the comparison between ideograms and typograms of the main area (secondary) building scope Source:(Wirakusumah, Antariksa, and Salura 2021) …”