Mastor Surat

Green Architecture and Islamic Architecture: The Islamic Arabic City and the Traditional Islamic House

The concept of sustainability or green architecture is not considered a new term, it is rather a concept embodied by the traditional architecture in different parts of the world since old ages via spontaneous and experimental compatibility. This compatibility is associated with the environment and with the efficient exploitation of the resources of the natural environment in accordance with the evolution of life and its means over the years. It is obvious to everyone the fact that the teachings of the Islamic religion include a lot of the principles of sustainability, which overlap with the social organization and behavior of the humanitarian community and are reflected on the production both at the level of urban planning standards for cities and urban agglomerations or the features of the traditional architecture. This paper is an attempt to define the concept of sustainability in the references of traditional Islamic architecture, in general and housing in particular, through a review of the relationship between man and the environment and its preservation within the Islamic perspective.

Maintenance Performance Quadrant for Rainwater Harvesting System

Maintenance performance is a key aspect in sustaining the RWH system. This is to ensure the maximum value of installing the RWH system as well as ensuring the system performs throughout the buildings lifetime. Two instruments were used during this research namely physical condition survey and questionnaire survey. The results from both instruments demonstrated cross-combination finding via maintenance performance quadrant at the end of analysis. Based on the study at 16 government buildings throughout Malaysia, the results show the majority of buildings need improvement in terms of their maintenance management, while two buildings have bad practice, which needs total refurbishment for the RWH system as well as their maintenance management. In conclusion, the physical condition of the RWH system for government building in Malaysia is regarded good and safe implemented. However, the maintenance performance can be improved with a proper maintenance guideline and management policy by the organization involved.

The Application of Principles of Green Building in Traditional Housing in Iraq

Green building has become an important issue among architects and urban planners due to the increment in global warming risks and climatic changes which influenced negatively on natural resources. It is also one of measures been put forward to alleviate the significant impacts of the influence of buildings on the environment, society and economy. There have been extensive studies on green buildings, as evidenced in the rapid growing number of papers been published in last decades. These studies have been conducted in both developed countries and developing countries, indicating this is a global issue. However, there is lack of extensive researches on the green buildings in Iraq that is crucial for the future exerts. This paper reports the definition of green building, the environmental, social and economical aspects of green building, and application of green buildings principles in traditional housing in Iraq.

An analytical study of critique session in architecture design studio

Design is one of the most complex types of problem solving that involves several aspects and components. Its cognitive processes and procedures should be transmitted to the students through lectures and critique sessions. The current model in studios is based on ancient model that must be redefined and be made clearer in order to improve both learning and teaching ways. This paper tries to analyze critique sessions in order to find its weak and strength points and also to identify procedures and tools that can be used to support the studio based pedagogy in architecture.