RAD+ar Develops an Environmentally Friendly Community Mosque with a Porous Envelope

From the outside, Bioclimatic Community Mosque of Pamulang does not display any common features of a typical Indonesian mosque. Instead of a minaret or a dome, this building is distinguished by the two-coloured stacked porous façade, topped with a massive vessel-shaped roof. This mosque is located within a university complex, serving as a place of worship and a community centre for the campus’ communities and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

©Arti Pictures

The architecture firm, RAD+ar, tries a different approach in designing this mosque by focusing on the provision of energy-efficient, sustainable, and impactful space. This approach directly touches on how the building reacts to its environment. With its location being in the tropics, the main concern is to provide a cool interior without any use of air conditioning units.

©Arti Pictures

To achieve the ideal thermal comfort, the mosque is designed to be breathable and light. The building exterior is mostly enveloped with perforated blocks, while the interior features several voids and has minimal solid partitioning. This allows constant air circulation throughout the building. At the top of the mosque, a massive vessel-like green roof hovers above the interior, leaving enough gap for hotter air from the inside to escape and at the same time providing adequate insulation from the sun’s heat.

©Arti Pictures

©Arti Pictures

Aside from creating cross ventilation within the building, RAD+ar also utilises natural lighting by arranging numbers of skylight that almost eliminate the needs of additional lighting during the day. While the skylights on the building’s perimeter area are made of the usual rectangular openings, those above the prayer rooms come with a circular shape. The visual of these circular skylights are quite interesting as they are not only functional but could also stimulate and symbolise the presence of a dome of which this mosque is lacking.

©Arti Pictures

©Arti Pictures

Although some expected elements are absent, Bioclimatic Community Mosque of Pamulang has the potentials to elevate other values of a religious space. One example is the sense of inclusivity, especially looking at how the building’s envelope is porous instead of enclosed, and the fact that the perforated blocks are locally sourced and manufactured. Beyond that, the interior’s constant airflow also helps to represent this mosque being a safer place of worship even in the middle of the Covid-19 situation.