Representation of national identity in Malaysian state mosque built form as a socio-cultural product

Abstract

The formation of national identity is the essence for a multi-racial country like Malaysia because it can strengthen national solidarity, create a common aspiration, and sustain the continuity of a historical heritage with multiple ethnicity and background. Nevertheless, the characteristics of this national identity is still not fully dealt with from an architectural aspect. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to critically examine the problem of national architectural identity in Malaysia. This is vital to uncover the resulting design principles with national architectural identity characteristics by referencing to three typologies of local state mosque as case study. The finding outlines that there are six architectural principles that influence the formation of national identity. These are the understanding of built form detail elements, materials usage, local style composition and expression, application of organic theory, designing a regionalistic articulation of space and form as well as an understanding of democratic values form to reflect the characteristics of national identity. These established referential guideline design on national identity is of benefit for future designers, builders, developer and related authority to produce built form that symbolizes nation political values as well as responsive to the existing social culture context.