RESEARCH ARTICLE

A parametric investigation of the acoustical performance of contemporary mosques

  • Mostafa Refat Ismail
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  • Department of Architecture Engineering, Ain Shams University, 1 Elsarayat Street, Abasya district Cairo, Cairo 11566, Egypt

Received date: 01 Sep 2012

Accepted date: 08 Nov 2012

Published date: 05 Mar 2013

Copyright

2014 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Acoustics is an important factor in mosque prayer halls that had not been given extensive concern during the architectural design stages. Eventually, the importance of speech intellig- ibility became more important, given the integration of other activities into the prayer halls, such as the holy Quran recitation, speeches, and lectures. Early attempts have been made to control the propagation of sound and to maintain good acoustic quality within the prayer spaces. Architects during the conceptual design stage had barely paid attention to the design issues that affect the acoustic environment inside the prayer zones, which is either due to lack of time during the project development or, in most cases, a lack of simple design guidelines to overcome any drastic acoustical defects arising from the incorrect design, shape, or material selection. The basic guidelines for designers to select the appropriate shape, geometry, size, and finishing materials are an essential design tool. This work examines the three common design topologies of mosques, which differ in size, shape, and finishing materials. In this study, a geometric and material parametric analysis was conducted based on the shape, surface area, volume, and finishing materials of each of the three designs. For the geometric acoustics, a computer model employing the ray tracing theory was employed to investigate the three configurations. Different acoustic treatments were tested relative to the geometric disposition of each design. Finally, basic recommendations and design guidelines were presented.

Cite this article

Mostafa Refat Ismail . A parametric investigation of the acoustical performance of contemporary mosques[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2013 , 2(1) : 30 -41 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2012.11.002

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