A distinct staple in the neighbourhood of Bedok, the eastern part of Singapore, that became a recognised landmark during its forty-year existence known as the Al-Ansar Mosque recently reopened its doors after almost three years of renovation and upgrading works. The renovation saw the religious space acquire a welcoming front to worshipers, while opening its doors to the broader public with new multi-purpose areas and creating a more welcoming interface with the multi-cultural community at large. Long before the renovation, the aging mosque faced the challenge of meeting the needs of the growing and increasingly elderly Muslim community in Singapore that needed a larger yet easy-to-access worship space that was not a complete departure from the original design of the mosque.
A national competition organised by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore took place to find an architect that is capable and has a sense of renovating the original mosque, while updating it to meet the needs of the present day community. The team at creative studios and architecture at ONG&ONG Group came up with a winning design that tastefully blended the traditional features of the mosque with innovative solutions to integrate various functions within its spaces. According Kurjanto Slamet who is the Lead Architect for ONG&ONG Group, he explained that, “We designed the mosque to be more open by lifting up the podium and creating an urban plaza, because the idea was to let the public understand Islamic values. I believe the bold vision behind our design made it stand out.” Furthermore, the team at ONG&ONG Group conceived the large covered community plaza to serve as a social gathering space for the Muslim community, while designing the main prayer hall to be column-free, allowing unobstructed views of the surrounding area and the plaza, as part of the design intent.
Aside from it, the new exterior showcases a welcoming façade with an arabesque inspired pattern, created by layers of secondary structures and screening. The pattern was created in collaboration with cross disciplinary design practice. Besides creating a unique identity, specific to the Al-Ansar Mosque, the fenestration enables natural ventilation through the building and filters in daylight into the inner spaces. While the new structure updates the mosque to meet the contemporary needs of the Muslim community, it is the preservation of the well-recognised, traditional elements that maintains the original integrity of the building and its status as a recognised neighbourhood landmark. The existing minaret was retained and readapted to become a lift core, while the external “Blue Dome” has been recreated in the interior of the main prayer hall to become its new centre piece, providing an intricate interplay between the old and the new within the building.
Masjid Al-Ansar, or Al-Ansar Mosque, is a mosque in Singapore that was among the first few to be built under Phase One of the Mosque Building Fund Programme. Completed in 1981 and located in the Bedok North area, at the junction of Chai Chee Street and Bedok North Avenue 1. The mosque can accommodate up to 3.500 people at any one time. Apart from daily and Friday prayers, the mosque offers madrasah classes during weekdays and weekends. It is also one of the few mosques that organizes religious classes in Tamil, and is one of only two mosques in Singapore with a full-time welfare officer. In October 2011, the mosque chairman announced that the masjid will undergo a major renovation starting in July 2012. With ONG&ONG Group’s restrained and sensible integration of traditional and contemporary elements and spaces, the Al-Ansar Mosque successfully increase the accommodation size to 4.500 people, have a wider multi-cultural context, the spiritual needs, improving access to the building for the elderly, while maintaining its chief function as a sacred space. For more information about Al-Ansar Mosque in Singapore, feel free to click the links above.