fatemeh khozaei

Several typological qualitative studies are reflecting stylistic similarity between Mughal architecture and Malaysian mosques based on the occurrence of Mughal features. However, these features were distorted in their forms and materials during their adaptation in Malaysian mosques being a different region, climate, and period though the features were within recognizable limits. Research

The purpose of this research is to explore an alternative approach based on components of feature to evaluate the stylistic similarity between Mughal architecture and Malaysian mosques during the British period. Research

This research is based on the similarity model and feature matching and it will investigate the aim through observation and case study methods by considering components of the feature as connotation with indicators to quantify the qualitative data. The methodology includes comparison and evaluation of dome, minaret, and chhatri as features from three Mughal case studies with three Malaysian mosques of the British period for their stylistic similarity.

The findings show that this alternative approach gives a more precise way to evaluate the stylistic similarity between Mughal architecture and Malaysian mosques based on the numeric value of responses for indicators.

Students’ residence halls have been studied repeatedly during the last decades from various perspectives (eg satisfaction). However, our knowledge is very limited in terms of students’ emotions towards various residence hall interior and exterior spaces. Besides, very little study exists on the impact of homelike furniture on students’ emotions. The question driving this research is whether the replacement of institutional furniture with home like furniture affects students’ emotional states towards their residence hall? The research follows a mixed, multi-staged methodology. Stage one used structured interviews of students about what might make a residence hall similar to home environments. This second stage evaluates students’ emotions toward their current residence halls (with institutional furniture) and modified images of the same place with homelike furniture. We used SAM to evaluate students’ emotional reactions in terms of valence, arousal, and dominance. The findings of the study suggests that home like residence halls significantly affect students’ positive emotions. The most positive emotions (valence, arousal, and dominance) were reported on kitchenette, corridor, and yard spaces and no significant differences were found on in-room décor.

The impetus behind this study is to discover the aesthetic and semantic patterns of the cypress tree and show how this element has been employed by Iranian artists. The question of this research is how a constant element (the cypress tree) has been transfigured in different Iranian arts. Four categories of miniature, carpet, textile and architecture decoration. The present research is qualitative in nature and is descriptive-analytic and mainly uses the available published data. Data were analyzed inductively and interpreted in the light of Gestalt theory. Exploratory results reveal that the cypress as a constant element in Iranian art has been transfigured differently in different arts. With the aid of Gestalt laws, the visual appearance of the cypress tree was analyzed in the different samples a few of them are presented in the study. It was found that distinguishing the cypress element has been made: by highlighting the role of the cypress and reducing the visual significance of the field while increasing the visual emphasis of the cypress. Application of different gestalt laws such as proximity, figure, and ground, similarity, continuity in Persian carpet mostly makes the cypress at the center of attention and reduces the visual importance of the other elements. In some of the other Persian carpet designs, this element has semantic and extraterrestrial concepts and sits is in the center (eg. Mehrabi carpets. In the miniature and fabric textiles, cypress tree has not received the urgent priority and often been on the margins of the image.

Shophouse is a famous building type in cities of Malaysia with its commercial usage on the ground floor and residence on the upper floor. The earliest shophouses were influenced by the indigenous Malay house style. Later, the styles were popular with the western influences due to the application of brick and plaster, construction technique and regulation of building by-laws. The syncretic nature of its style has incited scholars to be disagreeing on a single and precise classification. However, some styles like ‘Attap' type and Art Deco due to their distinguishing characteristics had an easy recognition. Several scholars have classified these styles of shophouses in Malaysia into different categories. This paper reviews six stylistic classifications of shophouse facades in Malaysia and further refines its genres by focusing it on a small region in George Town, Penang. The study examines 403 shophouses built in various periods along the seven parallel streets in George Town. It embarked with twenty-eight visual elements under the category of five architectural elements of the shophouse façades. The survey applied documentation, observation and visual method for the study of the façade elements. The findings suggest a fine tuned stylistic classification of shophouses based on a previous study of Hassan & Yahaya (2012) which is considered more pertinent in context of Malaysia.