History

Al-Mukminin Mosque was officially launched on 7 June 1987 by Dr Ahmad Mattar. It was constructed under Phase 2 of the Mosque Building Fund (MBF) scheme. Located at Jurong East HDB New Town, it has since undergone a major upgrading from a 2-story to a 4-story building, which was completed in June 2006. Al-Mukminin Mosque is under the West Mosque Cluster.

The works called for an extension block to the existing pentagonal shaped main prayer hall.

The strategy was to create a new block that would act as a backdrop to accentuate and not challenge the visual presence of the existing prayer hall. The curved block houses the madrasah (Islamic School). A horizontal louver system, designed to echo Islamic arabesque patterns, uses earth and natural colors which merge into one another. From within the corridors as well as seen as a backdrop, the curved screen captivates with its play of colors and shadows as well as provide natural ventilation into the spaces. The new facade facing the main road/MRT carries yet another modern arabesque pattern, this time taking into consideration the visual perception of someone on a fast-moving LRT/MRT train

(References : https://www.archilovers.com/projects/71928/al-mukminin-mosque.html#info)

(References: https://www.almukminin.sg/blog)

Description

The mosque in Singapore is a sort of community center, housing a madrasah, conference halls, social spaces and offices plus the main prayer hall, used day and night. The madrasah extension maximizes to the limit what the planning authorities can allow – 4 stories and a basement. Existing Context The most important is the existing prayer hall with its prominent fan-shaped roof.

The architects’ choices: to enhance its independence or reverentially engulfing it. Their choice is 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. Arabesque of Islamic Colors As Backdrop Beyond space provision, it seeks to explore the universality of Islamic principles in creating buildings that transcends artificial cultural barriers. The use of arabesque patterns and denationalization techniques are highly evident in this project. The underlying exploration in the project is the use of Islamic colors which primarily focus on ‘earth’ colors such as color of water, sky and ground.

 The juxtaposition of the multi-shade colors on the aluminum 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 colors 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 colored metallic louvers act as a new backdrop to the original fan shaped roof.

Climatic Response The aluminium screen louvers along the curved facade 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. The 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 colors (the bent aluminium louvers are colored on both sides internally and externally) act as a color back drop for the madrasah spill over areas.

(References: https://www.almukminin.sg/blog)