Passive Design Strategies of Colonial Mosques in Malaysia

Abstract

Mosque architecture in Malaysia has been classified into three different styles: vernacular, colonial, and modern. This paper focused on evaluating the passive design strategies adopted in colonial style mosques. In general, colonial building styles were built from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. This style was brought in by the European, depicting the architecture style of the West. Therefore, this study is intended to evaluate the strategies of climatic adaptation of colonial architecture style mosques in Malaysian climate. The first objective of this study is to identify the passive design elements found in three (3) case studies of royal colonial mosques in Malaysia, while the second objective is to evaluate the significance and effectiveness of the passive design strategies adopted by colonial style mosques in Malaysia. The study methodology comprises three stages. Firstly, the observation and literature review on the colonial mosques, secondly, the simulation of the indoor environment of three (3) colonial mosques case studies, and thirdly, the analysis of results obtained from observation and simulation. It was concluded that colonial design elements found in the three (3) colonial mosques are responsive to Malaysian climate and are significant and effective. All three royal colonial mosques adopted five passive design strategies. Among the five, the most significant and effective passive design strategy is the verandah, which gives full protection of the openings from the solar radiation. In addition to that, the introduction of dome into mosque design contributes to the improvement of indoor environment. The dome provides a large roof space, which protect the indoor space from solar radiation. Colonial architecture style mosques were influenced by the Western architecture, which are usually designed for temperate countries. However, the colonial architecture was adapted to Malaysian climate for colonial mosques design and provided comfortable indoor environment to the mosques.