Proposal
The Role of Digital Technology in Redesigning the Interior Design for Modern Buildings, Case of Mosque of Omar Bin Alkhattab at Daomet Al-Jandal, Al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia
Introduction
The mosque of Omar bin al Khattab is one of the historical buildings in the Domet asl-Jandal. Al-Jawf Saudi Arabia and the mosque is not one historical building in the area, but it is one of many historical and important buildings in the region. Therefore, there is always a sense of feelings and responsibility regarding this area as people having the aptitude and preferences for art have always been in favor of making it protected and secure place of historical importance. However, it is also a reality that there is not much information about the mosque and the area of Daomet al-Jandal, Al-Jawf among people because Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not disclose much information about the region and the mosque. In this way, the mosque and the area are surrounded in the secrecy however, it is historical treasure of the Kingdom, and this thesis proposal is going to emphasize on the importance of considering and giving importance to the mosque of Omar bin al Khattab which is one of the most important and visible historic buildings of the region (KING, 2000).
The history and archaeology of al Jouf region are very important in this context, and the importance of the mosque should be taken into the context of the importance of the area. In fact, the significance of the study is that it just recommends research on one building of historical importance, but actually, it tends to have the focus of the kingdom and the public towards preserving historical buildings of the al-Jawf region (Al-Muaikel, 1994). For this purpose, the role of digital technology should be considered and investigated in redesigning the interior design of the mosque which can later be applied to other buildings.
The significance of the Study:
Al-Jawf oasis has the ancient town of al-Jawf which is part of historical Daomet al-Jandal. The area of Daomet al-Jandal and the al-Jawf town are very important historically. Presently, the town and the area are deserted, and there is not a large population living in the town. However, there are large farms and gardens which are cultivated these days as well, and they indicate that the area has been one of historical importance in history. The mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab is one of the buildings of the area which was constructed on the orders of the second caliph of Islam Omar bin Al-Khattab and then, it was named after the caliph. This study is going to focus on the mosque as the mosque is important historically. The study gathers information on the building and then goes to recommend how to redesign the building through technology (Leonardi & Barley, 2008).
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has many historic buildings, and they are generally considered important for Muslims. Although, this study is also focused on a mosque which is the place of worship for Muslims the purpose of the study is only to guide and recommend experts and authorities to redesign the building, and the use of technology should be employed in this regard. Moreover, the area has many pre-Islamic monuments and inscriptions, and they may be preserved and redesigned to attract tourism in the region. Therefore, this study is going to play this role that focuses on the redesign of Omar bin al-Khattab can lead to focus on other buildings as well. Moreover, there would be more information about the mosque and the region which would be helpful for the preservation of historical buildings. The proposed study is significant in this content that it has been conducted on an ancient mosque and it focuses on the use of technology in doing so.
Problem Statement:
The mosque of Omar ibn al-Khattab has historical significance, and there are accounts of some European travelers that the mosque might be a church in the pre-Islamic period, and then it turns into a mosque after the conquest of Muslims. The reports supporting this aspect of the mosque that it was originally a church and then it was turned into a mosque by the caliph Omar bil al-Khattab. However, it was also repaired by Ibnu Sa’ood in recent history. However, the interior design of the mosque is not repaired after the period of Ibnu Sa’ood, and it is not appropriate as far as the significance of historical buildings is concerned. Therefore, the proposed study wants to raise the awareness and attention of experts and authorities to redesign the interior of the mosque. It is noted that historic buildings do not need to change the design fundamentally, but they should be repaired so that they cannot be damaged and deteriorated with time. Therefore, the proposed study aims to put the problem of repairing the historical mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab in the town of al-Jawf. Moreover, the use of technology is the main focus of this study as the role of technology in redesigning the mosque would be emphasized so that experts and authorities can know the importance of technology in this regard. It is also important to study the role of technology for redesigning because it would offer more opportunities for redesign which would not be possible without technology. Therefore, the technological perspectives of redesigning a historic building should be studied so that experts and authorities can get assistance regarding it.
Objectives of the Study
Objectives of the study are as follows:
- To investigate the role of digital technology in redesigning an ancient building
- To investigate the room of redesigning of the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab
- To investigate different aspects of digital technology in the preservation of historical buildings through a redesign
- To attract the attention of experts and authorities towards the preservation and protection of historical buildings of al-Jawf Town
- To increase the level of awareness and knowledge of historical buildings present in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- To recommend how to use digital technology in redesigning the interior design of ancient buildings as per modern architectural designs
Literature Review
Digital technology has invaded daily lives, and it has been affecting all domains of life. Computers and software are being used in every walk of life. The use of digital technology increases and adds new dimensions in the architectural process and ideas become easy to be expressed in material form. Architect performs his original role and digital technology assists the architect. Historical and traditional buildings are precious assets for the culture and heritage of any country. Architects can play their role in preserving and protecting these historical and traditional buildings (Lindekens, Heylighen, & Neuckermans, 2010).
The architect can use computer programs in construction, and it then integrates cognitive skills and knowledge in the construction design (Henfridsson & Bygstad, 2013). The exchange of ideas through man and the machine happens through using technology and in the result, architectural designs get maximum possible help and assistance. The originality of human beings and the processing ability of computer and software programs integrate to have a direct and high impact on the redesign efforts of historical buildings (Henfridsson, Mathiassen, & Svahn, 2014).
Historical buildings cannot be destroyed or demolished, but they have to be redesigned and renovated. Complete care has to be taken so that structure of historical importance cannot be damaged and there is the maximum level of protection and preservation of the original building and its state (Cellura, Ciulla, Guarino, & Longo, 2017). However, little changes can be brought into the state of buildings, but they can only be to the extent of inevitable reasons. Therefore, perfect precision is required (Kara, 2015). Digital technology can offer perfect precision and estimate as to how a building can be preserved and protected. There is some possibilities and opportunities through digital technology which can redesign the exterior and interior of any modern or historical building (Newport Partners LLC, 2017).
The architecture field has got the interference from digital technology through the digital designing program named CAD. This CAD program was different from two-dimensional drawings like diagrams and sections, and the use of CAD enables the architectural designs to be perfect and accurate. Digital models are more efficient and accurate than manual models (Nath, Ray, Basak, & Bhunia, 2018). The role of digital technology in redesigning has become very important and evident especially with the fact that manual models are difficult and costly to make and implement (Xia, Wang, Wang, & Yu, 2015). Once manual models are built then it is a very hard decision to reject or demolish it because it is costly to demolish and throw out the manual model. On the other hand, digital models provide the maximum level of choices and opportunities to use many programs and models before finally choosing the one (Piedmont-Palladino, McSherry, & Morton, 2017).
The concept of virtual buildings is also possible because of digital technology under which whole building or part of a building is designed virtually, and then a decision can be made whether to materialize that design or not. It is especially true for historical and traditional buildings where risk cannot be taken, and one has to be precise enough to bring in the intervention.
Above literature review should be taken in the context of the role of the redesign of the interior of the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab in the al-Jawf Town. The role of digital technology can be emphasized through its least possibility of error and mistake because the proposed study has been intended to make the building protected and it cannot be put in the hands of risky projects.
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses have been developed for the proposed study:
H0: Digital Technology has an inevitable role in the redesign of the interior design of modern buildings
H1: Digital Technology does not have an inevitable role in the redesign of the interior design of modern buildings
H0: Digital Technology should be used for the redesign of the interior design of the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab
H2: Digital Technology should not be used for the redesign of the interior design of the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab
H0: The archeological and historical asset of al-Jawf Town can be preserved using digital technology
H3: The archeological and historical assets of al-Jawf Town cannot be preserved using digital technology
Research Design
The research design for the proposed research is very important because it would lead the research process and it would make it effective. The importance of research design is very important because it is crucial for the scope of the research.
Moreover, it should be aligned with research objectives. This proposal for research has set the quantitative research design in which descriptive research would be conducted. The proposed research is a case in one building, and it is not going to establish any cause-and-effect relationship. Therefore, it does not need any experimental study design.
Moreover, critical analysis and information on the history and archeology of al-Jawf town would be presented in the proposed research. Moreover, the case of the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab has been given in the proposed research, and the study does not need experimental design. However, the role of digital technology would be investigated in the research which can be investigated through descriptive study design. The subjects would be measured for once only, and the role of digital technology would assess for the redesign of the interior design of the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab (McCusker & Gunaydin, 2015).
The reason to choose quantitative research design in the proposed research is that the research studies on the topic would be employed to develop hypotheses and these hypotheses would be tested using the questionnaire study tool. Moreover, the respondents would be experts and people in the archeology department of the Kingdom. Experts would be selected from the technology industry and archeology, and they would give their responses specifically to the redesigning of the mosque. In this manner, the role of digital technology would be investigated. Here, it is appropriate to discuss some properties of quantitative research design (Solheim, Plathe, & Eide, 2017).
Quantitative study designs might be descriptive or experimental, and this proposed research adopts a descriptive or observational research design. Under this research design, case and case studies are studied, and in this proposed research, the case of a mosque is going to be discussed. Descriptive studies are observational because subjects are studied without intervening and it is proposed to have the views and thoughts of experts about the role of digital technology in redesigning ancient buildings. As this proposed research is on the case, therefore it is the simplest form of descriptive observational studies. There are other types of descriptive research studies as well, but they are not appropriate in this case. The quantitative research design would help generalize the results, and the results for the role of digital technology for the redesign of the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab can be generalized for the redesign of other ancient buildings. But through quantitative descriptive research design, other buildings and archeological assets in the Kingdom and al-Jawf region can also be redesigned and protected (Yin, 2017).
Study Tool (Questionnaire)
The study tool for the proposed study would be a questionnaire, and the questions would be based on the variables of the role of technology, redesigning ancient and historical buildings, and related aspects. The questions would be focused on finding and describing the role of digital technology in the context of modern developments in technology and then to implement them on the buildings of historical significance.
Conclusion
The proposal concludes that research is a very important activity for increasing the level of awareness, knowledge, and practice for any work including the preservation and protection of historic buildings. This research thesis proposal is about the case on the mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab which is historically located in the region of Daomet al-Jandal, al-Jawf of Saudi Arabia. The mosque was named after the second caliph of Islam, but it has been reported that it was not built by the second caliph. It was the church in the era of pre-Islam and then it was turned into a mosque after the conquest of Islam. Later, the mosque was repaired in the reign of Al Sa’ood. After this, this mosque has not undergone by any major repair and renovation, therefore, the redesign of the interior of the mosque has been proposed to study critically. In modern times, the importance and prevalence of technology are widespread, therefore, the role of digital technology has been proposed to study in the research. There is another important aspect of the proposal that proposed research would study the archeology and geography of Al-Jawf region and its history. Early Arabic epigraphy would also be critically studied in the proposed research. It is recommended that proposed research should be able to fill to provide the basis for actual research so that historical buildings in Saudi Arabia can be protected and preserved.
References
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Cellura, M., Ciulla, G., Guarino, F., & Longo, S. (2017). Redesign of a Rural Building in a Heritage Site in Italy: Towards the Net Zero Energy Target. Buildings, 7(3), 1-10.
Henfridsson, O., & Bygstad, B. (2013). The Generative Mechanisms of Digital Infrastructure Evolution. MIS Quarterly, 37(3), 907-931.
Henfridsson, O., Mathiassen, L., & Svahn, F. (2014). Managing technological change in the digital age: the role of architectural frames. Journal of Information Technology, 29(1), 27-43.
Kara, D. L. (2015). A critical look at the digital technologies in architectural education: when, where, and how? Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 176, 526-530.
KING, G. (2000). A MOSQUE ATTRIBUTED TO UMAR B. AL-KHATTAB IN DUMAT AL-JANDAL IN AL-JAWF, SAUDI ARABIA. Rutgers University, 109-123.
Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, S. R. (2008). Materiality and change: Challenges to building better theory about technology and organizing. Information and Organization, 18(3), 159-176.
Lindekens, J., Heylighen, A., & Neuckermans, H. (2010). UNDERSTANDING ARCHITECTURAL REDESIGN. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.609.431&rep=rep1&type=pdf
McCusker, K., & Gunaydin, S. (2015). Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), 537-542.
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Newport Partners LLC. (2017). Innovative Building Technology Guide. Retrieved from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Innovative-Building-Technology-Guide.pdf
Piedmont-Palladino, S., McSherry, L., & Morton, E. (2017). New vs Old: New Architecture of Purpose in Old Settings. Masterof Science in Architecture Thesis.
Solheim, E., Plathe, H., & Eide, H. (2017). Nursing students’ evaluation of a new feedback and reflection tool used during high-fidelity simulation in the formative assessment of clinical skills–A descriptive quantitative research design.
Xia, Z., Wang, Q., Wang, Y., & Yu, C. (2015). A CAD/CAE incorporate software framework using a unified representation architecture. Advances in Engineering Software, 87, 68-85.
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