Challenges of Designing Ablution Spaces in Mosques

Abstract

Followers of the religion of Islam are estimated to constitute 20– 25% of the world population. Islam is the religion of the majority in about 40 countries ~Britannica 2002!. Almost every other country in the world has a minority that follows Islam. As a relatively high percentage of Muslims regularly practice their religious duties, including prayers, there are always needs to design, build, and maintain mosques in various parts of the world. Many designers, who may or may not be Muslims, are assigned the task of designing either a mosque or—as in many Islamic countries—a praying facility that is part of a shopping mall, an exhibition hall, an airport, or other public building. As they do with other building types, those designers use common reference books ~e.g., Neufert 2000! and some specialized books ~e.g., El Gohary 2001! to acquire the needed design data. Authorities in some Islamic countries publish sets of guidelines for mosque design ~e.g., Ibraheem 1979!. These resources help designers make appropriate design decisions and assist in ensuring adequate, efficient, safe, and comfortable use of the facility. Most of these references, however, focus solely on the design of the praying space of the mosque. They typically ignore the supporting spaces for the mosque. These supporting spaces can be required, such as the toilets and ablution spaces, or optional such as a room for body washing for the dead, a library, or a classroom. Within the category of required spaces, toilet design is very much standard and the requirements are well-known to most designers. On the other hand, the ablution spaces ~an example is shown in Fig. 1! are much more challenging in their design, because they are needed for a function that many designers may not be familiar with. Unfortunately, there are no design guidelines that help designers provide users with safe and comfortable ablution spaces. Consequently, the quality of the design depends heavily on the designer’s ability to understand and familiarize himself/herself with the function of the space and his/her willingness to invest time in investigating various design alternatives. As an expected result of such a design environment, there are some well-designed ablution spaces but there are many more badly designed ones. The bad designs not only cause discomfort in using the space but can also constitute a safety hazard ~Hilliard et al. 1999!. There is a definite need to support designers with guidelines that help them provide the minimum acceptable design. This paper focuses on the prerequisite to develop such guidelines, which is the identification of the design challenges. The paper opens doors for interested researchers and designers to address the challenges with appropriate solutions. It is also a starting point for designers until comprehensive guidelines are available. Following this background, there is an explanation for the function performed in the ablution space from a design perspective. A clarification for the important and relevant ‘‘clean zone’’ concept follows. The main section of the paper identifies and discusses the design challenges and critically analyzes some commonly used design solutions. The paper ends with a summary.