As we are heading through the second decade of the 21st century, architecture of the Islamic communities is still an unresolved dilemma. In this context, the impact of iconic buildings which claim to represent Islam or provide a contemporary approach to Islamic architecture is crucial on different levels. Therefore, a year after Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) opening in Doha, Qatar, an evaluative perspective of the institution’s development story needs to be sketched. In this essay I will use MIA, Doha as a springboard for a discussion related to the museums of the 21th century. Then, I will try to exploit the findings of this discussion in the assessment and critical review of the museum itself. The assessment will include the ability of contemporary architecture to credibly represent Islamic cultural identity. This essay will analyze how and why community participation in museums is a significant factor in bridging the gap and improving relationship between the two institutions. The social inclusion leads to trust, understanding, a sense of identity, and creating a museum that is more relevant to the community. This essay also give some suggestions on how to build bridges between museums and communities, to provide an opportunity for the people living in such communities, like Gulf ones, to find out about their own heritage and to help them realize that it is through their active participation in museum activities that heritage is kept alive. Considering Qatar’s thrive into a post-oil paradigm where knowledge economy might be the generative force for development, an examination of how MIA is contributing to Qatar’s new vision becomes so relevant.

These days, many researches on traditional architecture of South Kalimantan focus merely on traditional settlements and houses. Particularly, the research on places of worship has been conducted in small numbers, and it is sometimes never publicized, especially in scientific magazine or journal. Meanwhile, the construction of some new mosques in South Kalimantan has no longer concerned the local architecture. This research alone aims to attain architecture’s entity as the place of worship for the people of South Kalimantan, especially for Banjarese Tribe as the majority in South Kalimantan. Traditional Banjarese Tribe is known as an islamic tribe. They used to be called Dayak Tribe since they had faith in traditional religions such as animism and dynamism. As Muslim people, they perform their prayers in a place of worship called mesigid (mosque). The research applies the method of case study. Based on the result of field and literature study, the architecture entity of Banjarese’s place of worship has some specific features that are different from other mosques in other regions. From the analyses, it can be concluded that the traditional mosques of South Kalimantan have three kinds of room, which are palataran, praying area, and mihrab (a chamber indicating the direction of Mecca). Palataran is the porch or the terrace surrounding the mosque, while the praying area and mihrab are rectangular. Traditional mosques in South Kalimantan have their own entity which is formed by the plan of praying area and mihrab, as well as their three layered-roof. The roof in these mosques has a sharp angle (60o) and an acute angle (20o). Furthermore, the overall entity of the mosque symbolizes hayat tree (Dayak Tribe), and the ornaments (pataka/patala) found on the roof top is a symbol of hornbill. Both symbols are the symbols of identity and mythology of Dayak Tribe.

Islamic architecture is often thought as a history course and thus finds its material limited to the cataloguing and studying of legacies of successive empires or various geographic regions of the Islamic world. In practice, adherent professionals tend to reproduce high styles such as Umayyad, Abassid, Fatimid, Ottoman, etc., or recycle well known elements such as the minarets, courtyards, and mashrabiyyahs. This approach, endorsed by the present comprehensive Islamic revival, is believed to be the way to defend and revitalize the identity of Muslim societies that was initially affected by colonization and now is being offended by globalization. However, this approach often clashes with the contemporary trends in architecture that do not necessarily oppose the essence of Islamic architecture. Furthermore, it sometimes lead to an erroneous belief that consists of relating a priori forms to Islam and that clashes with the timeless and universal character of the Islamic religion. The key question to be asked then is, beyond this historicist view, what would be an “Islamic architec-ture” of nowadays that originates from the essence of Islam and that responds to contemporary conditions, needs, aspirations of present Muslim societies and individuals. To what extends can Islamic architecture bene-fits from modern progress and contemporary thought in resurrecting itself without loosing its essence. The hypothesis of the study is that, just as early Muslim architecture started from the adoption, use and re-use of early pre-Islamic architectures before reaching originality, this process, called Islamization, could also take place nowadays with the contemporary thought that is mostly developed in Western and non-Islamic environ-ments. Mechanisms in Islam that allowed the “absorption” of pre-existing civilizations should thus structure the islamization approach and serve the scholars and professionals to reach the new Islamic architecture. The objectives of the paper consist of counter-criticizing orientalists’ views that overwhelm our libraries and references systems, and that consider the first stage of Islamic civilization, within which architecture is part, as a mere cut-and-paste process and, at best, a synthesis of these pre-Islamic heritages, and overcoming the prevailing historicist approach, and open new scopes for future generations to instate a new era of islamization that permits digesting the contemporary Western thoughts in a conscious, critical, and constructive way.

This paper tries to shed light on post-traditional environment in Algeria in a post global civilisation era. Some chosen projects implemented in some parts of the country are dealt with in relation to the expression of self identity through housing architecture. The focus of the work is on methods, achievements and implications of the projects. As from the seventies of the last century Algeria witnessed dramatic changes in its physical environment. The cities became the focus of international construction activities and many internationally renowned architects competed for large scale projects (Oscar Niemeyer, Ricardo Boffil, Kenzo Tang, etc). The projects chosen in this paper all deal with housing and include a housing scheme in Maadher near Msila, the second example in El Oued, the third is a housing project in Ouled Djellal. All of these projects by El Miniawy brothers disciples of the late Hassan Fathy, address critical aspects of the built environment. Yet one can consider these projects as representative of architectural thinking and activity in the country. This working paper reveals general aspects to gain comprehensive understanding, rather than statistical knowledge of Algerian built environment.

Cities in 21st century are losing identity due to globalization and rapid urbanism. However, great architectural buildings like Sultan Hassan Mosque Complex show us that great architectural wonders can keep this identity and can affect positively in society’s life. The simple aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between architectural features and Islamic meanings in modern world through studying the past. The study is mainly based on two main sources of data, literature review regarding historical part and site visit dealing with discussion of architectural features, uses and effect on surroundings society. Based on these sources, analysis was made based on matrix relationship between two sets of criteria, architectural parts (design, usage, location, artistic features), and mosque significance in Islam (prayer house, community center, center of knowledge, meeting place for shoura). Findings proved the existence of consequent relationship between Islam and architecture, as Islamic principles affect the design of the mosque in religious, social, and service aspects. Alternatively, architectural building satisfies all Muslim needs. This dual effect situation shapes recommend-dations like enhancement of the multidimensional use of the mosque, strengthen the community service role of the mosque, and developing design of modern mosques to fulfill Muslim requirements with 21st century measures and also endorse Islamic values through architecture.