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MINARET WILL SOAR 230 FEET
Islamic pattern running from top to bottom in the centre.
A lift capable of taking four persons at a time will run up to a concrete platform from where tradi- tionally the bilal will call the faithful to prayer.
In this mosque however, a public address system will be provided whereby the bilal from the mosque floor can give the call to prayer through a loudspeaker on the plat- form. The platform will be topped by a gold finished fluted and pointed spire.
A dewan (hall) for conferences, meetings and also serving as a din- ing hall which can accommodate 600 people will be situated on one end leading through a semi-enclosed Koran reading stage to the mosque.
Rear of the site will be a mauso- leum where seven future heroes of
An architect's impression of the National Mosque of the Federation of Malaya, which is to be built off Victory Avenue in Kuala Lumpur. On the right under the unusual sta shaped dome is the mosque proper. The minaret soaring out of one end of an ornamental pool is 230 feet high. On the extreme left are the Dewan (hall) and Koran reading room.↓
Malaya are to be buried.
The circular mausoleum roofed by a seven-pointed star shaped dome will be surrounded by a pool of
water.
There will be a car park accessible by an approach road from Venning Road off Victory Avenue and gar.
dens and pools with fountains will surround the buildings.
The whole building will be richly decorated with Islamic and Malay motifs and patterns. The mosque will be walled by a concrete grille of the same patterns and the fascia will be decorated with Kufic writing.
SHELL STRUCTURES FOR FAR EAST ?
PROFESSOR DAVID TARAZUKI. who will be critic and lecturer to senior architectural students at Singapore Polytechnic during the coming two years, is the author of several works dealing with shell structures.
At a conference held on his arrival in Singapore he said he felt that shell structures might in the future become widely used in the Far East.
The material used was reinforced concrete and involved the use of much unskilled and comparatively rheap labour. But the popularity of shell structures would in the end depend on comparative costs and the ability of the structures to with- stand a hot moist climate without
expensive modifications.
Shell structures, which do away with conventional supporting co. lumns, were particularly suitable for covered stadiums, auditoriums and swimming pools, he said Their use for private homes was still very much in the experimental stage.
Welcoming Professor Tarazuki, who was visiting professor at New York's Cornell University from 1956 to 1959. Mr. Kee Yeap, head of the Architectural and Building Depart- ment of the Polytechnic, said he would be particularly useful to the students as he came from a crowded industrial Asian country and would therefore be sensitive to local archi- tural problems.
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