ISLAMIC LANDSCAPE: THE INTERPRETATION AND VIABILITY OF ISLAMIC COURTYARD IN MALAYSIA

2.0 STUDY AREA

Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan or Federal Territory Mosque located adjacent to Jalan Duta is one of the tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur. Open to public in the 25th October 2000, the construction of this mosque began in 1997. The architectural and interior design of the mosque is a blend between traditional Malay and Middle East with the overall concept influenced by the traditional Othmanian mosques in Turkey.

Figure 1.1: Federal Territory Msoque, Jalan Duta

The mosque can accommodate up to 17,000 devotees at a time with the total expanse of 47,000 square metres. Incorporating beautiful landscape and mosque design with its environment and topography conditions, it is complimenting the ‘Mosque in a Garden’ concept. There are three gardens surrounded the mosque; De Forest, De Flora/De Palma and De Ethno-Botanical.

De Forest is a jungle garden that also acts as the buffer zone for the mosque. The tree species originated from Malaysia’s tropical rainforest and planted along the roadside area. For the De Flora or De Palma area, a collection of palms with diversified species, native and foreign, are planted on the surroundings. A second entrance is decorated with assortment of flowers in addition to a pedestrian walkway and a spacious area for recreation. De Ethno-Botanical garden, or also known as medical garden, is a garden where the crops planted are from herbs, medicines, spices and scented flowers. With the combination of water element and reflexology walkway, it added the healing element of the garden.

In order to attain more general understanding on the use and implementation of courtyards in Malaysia, a study is carried out at the Asian and Western Courtyards in The Curve, Mutiara Damansara. Surr...

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...on elements of the courtyard. Section C consisted of two simple open-ended questions. The first question asks the reason they came to the courtyard. The second question is based on their own opinion and remarks on the courtyard. Lastly in Section D involves a visual analytic themed question, where the aid of graphic images is given as the respondents may not be entirely familiar with design understandings. The section is composed of three rows of photos depicting images of courtyard elements. The images are taken from Google images for reference purpose.

Upon completing this sample of questionnaire, a pilot testing was made during the first visit in Western Courtyard, The Curve. The purpose of this pilot testing is to analyze and examine whether the respondents finds the questions easy to understand or otherwise. The questionnaire proceeded without much change.