Photographic and printed material, Seremban State Mosque (1965–1967), Seremban, Malaysia 馬來西亞芙蓉市森美蘭州清真寺 （1965至1967年）影像及印刷資料

The Malayan Architects Co-partnership won an open competition for the Negeri Sembilan State Mosque, located in a garden park in Seremban, Malaysia, in the mid-1960s. Their design’s distinctive nine-sided plan references the name ‘Negeri Sembilan’, which means ‘nine states’ in Malay. This was the only mosque in Malaysia to be designed by non-Muslim architects. It has no dome, demonstrating the architects’ interest in seeking alternative models to conventional mosque design.

The project’s hyperbolic conoid roof, made possible through a collaboration with the engineering firm Ove Arup & Partners, flares out over each of the mosque’s sides. Thin minaret-like pillars capped with star-and-crescent motifs separate these sweeping curves and pass through a thick, angled terrace to the ground below. Visitors enter the mosque via a staircase under this raised platform. The nine arched facade segments are clad in tiled glass and wooden screens, whose simple abstract patterns provide privacy on the exterior and light and transparency within.

While the design clearly addresses the specific functions of the mosque, its porous, equal sides and open prayer hall express the architects’ interest in modernist ideas of universal space. The project’s collaborative realisation and architectural language are representative of the multicultural society of the newly independent country.

This series consists of a set of slides showing an architectural model of the mosque (including several with the roof removed so as to better understand the interior structure), photographs of the completed building, and a postcard depicting the mosque.