The People’s understanding on

Islamic Architecture
An early study of Indonesian

Muhamad Ratodi

How to cite :
Ratodi, Muhamad (2020): The People’s understanding on Islamic Architecture.
figshare. Presentation. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11815206.v1
 Architcture has became a tools for increasing the visibility
of Islam in public spheres

The terminology of Islamic Architecture is still debatable

among scholars and experts

Indonesia, as a Moslem-majority country, with it various

culture, has its own perspective regarding Islamic Architecture

This research tried to explore the Indonesian understanding and

their knowledge related to the Islamic Architecture concepts

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Data Collection

• Using Saputra’s questionnaire which distributed online,

we manage to collect 107 respondents (after data
cleansing)
• The data collected during October 2017 until August
2018
• Data was descriptively display using tables and graphs
• The respondent were Indonesian citizen, either in the
country or abroad
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respondents origin area

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Respondent’s latest education and their
background

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Respondent’s feedback on Islamic civilization
and Architecture issues
Agree Disagree
Statements
∑ % ∑ %
Architecture has a relationship
with race, ethnicity, nationality, 135 97,8 3 2,1
and religion
Typical IA not encountered
25 18,1 113 81,8
throughout Islamic civilization
Muslims need to imitate the
Architecture in the Developed
46 33,3 92 66,6
Countries to catch up on
Architecture
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 How the respondent tends to define
Islamic Architecture

Most of the respondents with architecture backgrounds tend to see Islamic architecture in the
value / philosophical perspective, while those with non-architecture history prefer to see Islamic
architecture as a form of physical/visual entities
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 Respondent feedback on several basic Islamic Architecture issues
Yes/agree No/disagree Don't Know
Statements
∑ % ∑ % ∑ %
The verses in the Qur'an and the Prophet's Hadith have a
91 65,9 6 4,3 41 29,7
connection or explain about Architecture
There is a linkage between Islam and Architecture 120 86,9 6 4,3 12 8,7
IA can only be designed by Moslems 21 15,2 113 82 4 2,9
IA only useful for Moslems 5 3,6 132 96 1 0,7
IA is limited to mosque buildings 4 2,9 134 97 0 0,0
IA only exist in an Islamic-based country or a
20 14,4 110 79 8 5,8
predominantly Moslem country
Moslems are allowed to imitate or learn the Architecture
115 83,3 14 10 9 6,5
from non-believers or non-Islamic civilizations
A non-Moslems are permitted to design mosques 96 69,5 27 20 15 10,8

although Islamic Architure is not a values-free concpet, it did not require the designer to embrace Islam also. Based on Islamic
beliefs as universal teaching and emphasis on the Islamic values applied to the architectural object design, as long as the
architect did not violate the law and rules in Islamic teachings
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 Famous Friedrich
Silaban, an Indonesian
non-moslem wellknown
architect who design the
Great Mosque of Istiqlal

(source: https://media.rooang.com/2016/11/kisah-
friedrich-silaban-sang-arsitek-masjid-istiqlal/)
(source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesjid_Istiqlal.jpg)
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“In the process of designing IA products requires
elements of belief or faith, which in turn produce
an understanding to realize the concept of
metaphysical into a physical formation
(built environment).
The meaning of Islamic building art will emerge
from a heart full of inspiration towards the
Islamic teachings itself, and here lies the
difference between Moslem and non-Moslems
architects”
(according 15% of the respondents)
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 “IA not limited to the mosque only, as a
ritual function, but it can apply in other
purposes, such as housing, educational
facilities, commercial, and public facilities.
As long as we understand the fundamental
values and principles of the IA framework
and always strive to be a good Muslim,
every architectural object can consider as
Islamic Architecture.”
(according to 97.10% of respondents)

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 The respondent’s knowledge on IA objects
We asked the respondents to mentions an example of Islamic architecture objects and
catagorized the aswers based on their function and origins

Most of the respondents mentioned worship buildings catagorized as an example of Islamic Architecture
objects and dominated from abroad.
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 The respondent’s knowledge on IA architects
We asked the respondents to mentions one Islamic architect that first came in their mind

The distribution architect’s origin based on the respondents

answer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://designwithnature.eu/video-collections-2/hassan-fathy
https://www.goodnewsfromindonesia.id/2016/04/13/achmad-noeman-sang-arsitek-seribu-masjid

Only 60% respondets can mention an Islamic architect name, and dominated by foreign architect. Five names were
mentioned the most, which is: Mimmar Sinan, Zaha Hadid, Ridwan Kamil, Hassan Fathy and Achmad Noeman
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 Conclusions
The Indonesian has begun to
understand that the Islamic Public knowledge about the
architecture concept was not Islamic Architect figures could
merely at the visual aspect only but considered low
also at the perspective of values.

The various step is needed to

increase public awareness againts
Islamic architecture
acknowledgement, to define and
clarify multiple essential concepts
and terminology of IA

Research still has several limitation, especially with small sample size and without any direct interaction to
explore more deeply on the respondents feedback.

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Acknowledgements
We would like to send a high gratitude to Mr. Andika
Saputra (Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta)
for his assistance in initiating and providing the main
tools for this simple research.

Fulltext version can be download at

https://osf.io/preprints/inarxiv/g8dkq/

The template designed by PoweredTemplate.com

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Sources
Ratodi, M., A’yun, Q., & Hapsari, O. E. (2018, September 14).
The People’s Understanding on Islamic Architecture: A
Study of Indonesian. https://doi.org/10.31227/osf.io/g8dkq
Shinta (2016). Kisah Friedrich Silaban, Sang Arsitek Masjid
Istiqlal. ROOANG.
https://media.rooang.com/2016/11/kisah-friedrich-
silaban-sang-arsitek-masjid-istiqlal/
Hilmi, Muhammad Faiz. (2018). File:Mesjid Istiqlal.jpg.
Wikipedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesjid_Istiqlal.j
pg
This work is liceansed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 16