Journal Article

Perception of House Design in Islam: Experiences from Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan

Mujahid, Beenish, Malik, Sana

2016

Overview

Islamic planning principles offer guidance for designing home spaces. Islam as a code of life provides view points for designing houses and human interaction within these dwellings. The teachings of Sunnah and Shari'ah help in creating righteous and healthy individual, community and ultimately creating a healthy society. All such grooming principles originate from a home, whereas the structure and design of a house is given a form by considering local context, and human needs and different phases of planning and designing. One can observe many distinguishing examples of customary architecture of Islamic houses, in different Muslim and Arab countries. The objective of this research is to study the assimilation of Islamic housing concepts in different cultural settings by analyzing the contemporary house designs in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The research methodology is based on literature review and typological analysis of house designs of similar dwelling type. The analysis has further divided into different sections of house planning and design in light of Islamic teachings and cultural backgrounds. The paper scrutinizes the presence of architectural expression of Islamic perspective which administrated the design concept of the Muslim houses in said countries. Furthermore, it highlights the unique Islamic characteristics of residential designto provide a complete picture of current housing pattern adopted by Muslims of different geographical context.

• Publisher: University of Management and Technology, Department of Islamic Thought and Civilization
• Subject: Appropriate technology / Architectural engineering / Architecture / Construction / Culture / Design / Developing countries / Health care / Houses / Housing / Islam / LDCs / Literature reviews / Muhammad (prophet) / Muslims / Planning / Social policy / Typological analysis