Al-Mukminin Mosque in Singapore was originally completed in 1987. It is located in the West and has since undergone a major upgrading from a 2-storey to a 4-storey with basement building, which was completed in June 2006 and can now accommodate a congregation of about 4,500. The madrasah extension maximizes to the limit of what the planning authorities can allow – 4 stories and a basement. the extension work was carried out by Tan Kok Hiang (Forum Architects).

Al-Mukminin Mosque is a sort of community centre, housing a madrasah, conference halls, social spaces and offices plus the main prayer hall, used day and night.

The most important is the existing prayer hall with its prominent fan-shaped roof. The architects’ chose was either to enhance its independence or reverentially engulfing it. Their choice was the latter, flaring open the ends of the corridors of the new block and stretching its new staircases to unwrap the old hall. The staircases flanking the opposite ends of the new block are expressed as sturdy towers, and portals of the new wing.

The widened ends of the corridors are also used as external spaces of the classrooms. The use of arabesque patterns and denationalization techniques are highly evident in this project. The arabesque of Islamic colours as backdrop beyond space provision seeks to explore the universality of Islamic principles in creating buildings that transcends artificial cultural barriers. The underlying exploration in the project is the use of Islamic colours which primarily focus on ‘earth’ colours such as colour of water, sky and ground.

The juxtaposition of the multi-shade colours on the aluminium louvers are designed to create a mottled effect from far, to create materialization, an ancient technique often used in Islamic buildings. The intricate composition of turquoise, yellow and blue – dominant colours in Islamic buildings – convey a sense of depth and animation to a flat surface, also visible through the skylight gap between the old and new block. This sweeping curve of coloured metallic louvers act as a new backdrop to the original fan shaped roof.

The aluminium screen louvers along the curved façade are designed as bent sheets with deep overlapping overhang. This effectively screen off the harsh afternoon sun whilst allowing ventilation into the corridor behind and not allow monsoonal rains to beat in, which is common in the tropical climate. This is important as corridor adjacent to the madrasah classrooms is used as spill over activity areas.

The irregular random cut out from the aluminium screen louvers also allow the children to peep out in the spirit of adventure and play while the juxtaposition of colours (the bent aluminium louvers are coloured on both sides internally and externally) act as a colour back drop for the madrasah spill over areas.