Muslim Oprhanage's Village

8/12/2019 Muslim Oprhanage's Village

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MUSLIM ORPHANAGE'S VILLAGE

Shah Amir Ezham bin Ismail

Abstract

The development of the orphans in orphanage after modern era has become one of the

considerations in architecture. This has got to do with the consideration of improving the life

of orphans as they are recorded in journal and research paper to have a poor psychological

and physical growth. Many researches had come to conclusion that institutional care

especially for the orphans must be terminated in order to stop the epidemical issue. This

drastic conclusion however can be refuted by analysing the main defects of current

institutional care that involve orphans as the main user. Thus, this paper aim to analyse the

defects and to propose suitable design solution in order to overcome the epidemical issues of

psychological and physical shortcomings among the orphans. This research also aims to

create a new place that can be called home for the orphans with the consideration of Islamic

approaches.

Keyword: Orphan, orphanage, institutional care, psychology

Introduction - Background study

Children living in orphanages are one of the most vulnerable group of children in a

society; many of them have to live with repeated neglect, abuse or fear. For many of them, a

new safe institution they can trust alone is not enough to repair the damage imposed by

abnormal early stress on the developing nervous system. Extensive research in child

development has shown that living in an orphanage from an early age can result in severe

developmental delays, disability physical stunting, and potentially irreversible intellectual


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and psychological damage. One study on orphanages in Europe, for example, found that

young children (0-3 years) placed in orphanages were at risk of harm in terms of attachment

disorder, developmental delay (i.e., reaching developmental milestones and gross and fine

motor skills), and neural atrophy in the developing brain. currently, deinstitutionalization is

said to be the solution for the problems. However there are still plenty of options are

available to overcome the problem.

Orphan's Psychology

To live without a real father and mother during childhood is a great challenge that one

can ever have. There are two conditions that we could observe in understanding an orphan;

one who never had a chance to get pampered by a father while the other is the one who ever

lived together with a father. A person who never had something to lose usually does not fell a

real experience of great loss. Conversely, a person who ever got a chance to live with a father

will experience a severe impact of loss psychologically when the father dies. Nevertheless,

grief, low self esteem and despair are the main mental illness that both types of orphans

suffer from.

Generally, it is not that hard to understand how grief they are, as death has always

become the source of sorrow and unhappiness. However, to understand their level of self

esteem, some analysis and proves should be presented in order to understand their

psychological reaction towards their confidence. This is crucial and significant in order to

cure the mental illness for a better future for them, as low self esteem will not develop

confidence and guts in oneself.


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According to Nilofer and Intizar (2009), based on their finding:

The findings of the current research suggest all the orphan children reported lower

self-esteem as compared to the children living with their parents probably due to loss of

their parents. These findings are consistent with those of the prior researches. Mohanty

and Newhills (2005) research findings suggest that international adolescent adoptees

have lower self-esteem and are at higher risk for developing severe mental health

problems and social maladjustment than children of the same age living with their

biological families in the general population. Their study also indicated that many

international adoptees are confused about their racial and ethnic identity and face

difficulties in handling bias and discrimination. They further argue that the

international adoptees may have a better adjustment if their adoptive parents are

sensitive and appropriately responsive to issues related to their adopted child's race,

ethnicity, and culture (p. 124).The act of low self esteem can be identified through ones opinion and action. Feeling

guilty, unmotivated, too shy and negative belief towards themselves are some of the

characteristics of low esteem. Being quite sometimes in a dull and unmotivated environment

has also contributed towards this decreasing confidence, making them to accept everything

without thinking of shifting the paradigm.


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Research Issues and Problems

That has been many deep researches done by many parties regarding to the

effectiveness of residential care in the orphanage either within local context of Malaysia or

abrad. The epidemic issue that has been arising for all this time is the most of existing

Institutional care of the orphanage has created psychiatric problems such as severe

developmental delays, disability physical stunting, potentially irreversible intellectual and

psychological damage, lack of discipline and low motivational level among the orphans.

Research Methodologies

Basically there are 4 stages of method that will be used in order to gain information

for this research, which are:

1. Literature ReviewsLiterature review will give the preliminary information needed to guide the

research. In this section, the fundamental terms will be clarified first, which are

inclusive of the term of orphan, orphanage, space, quality as well as the relation

between these terms with some review pertaining to the evaluation of the space

quality. Some practises in regard of the topic will also be reviewed in order to

get the whole idea of this research.

2. Precedent StudiesPrecedent study will cover the study of past cases or events that could give initial

ideas on something to be developed and manipulated in the future. In this

research, the precedent study is conducted to see the ideas and example of

existing home environment orphanages around the world and its efficiency.


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3. Case StudiesFor this research, case study will be done to get some specific idea that could be

integrated in the design of the orphanage. The case is not necessary an

orphanage. For example, the study of psychological impact of colour towards

human brain and activities. However it must be relevant enough to be associated

with the design later on.

4. Data Analysis and SynthesisDiscussion will be made to discuss the collected data from the literature review,

precedent studies and case studies. Through the discussion, a conclusion will be

made as the outcome. The conclusion should provide the brief ideas on the

criteria needed to provide a quality home environment and deinstitutionalization

orphanage that will be used as reference for the design later on.

Scope and Limitation of Research

In order to focus on the subject that really matter with the topic, this research

has outlined the scopes and limitations as below:

1. The building typology will only focus on orphanage;2. The target user will be on Muslim orphans mainly from the age of 0 years to 6

years old (to focus more on pre-schooler and below), administrative staff and

other supporting workers with some consideration of public integration;

3. The main issue will only focus on psychiatric issue of the orphans4. The design solution will focus on how to overcome the psychiatric issues

among the Muslim orphans of 0-6 years old.


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Data Collection and findings

Current condition of Government's Orphanage

Generally the symptom of psychiatric issues among the local government orphanages

can be detected through the orphans behaviour records including . In Malaysian context,

these are the records from the authentic source that tells present of psychiatric problems

among the orphans:

Table 1- Discipline cases reported at Rumah Kanak-kanak Sultan Abdul Aziz (RKK Sultan Abdul Aziz, 2012)


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Table 2- Discipline cases reported at Rumah Kanak-kanak Sultan Abdul Aziz (RKK Sultan Abdul Aziz, 2012)

Table 3- Discipline cases reported at Rumah Kanak-kanak Rembau (RKK Sultan Rembau, 2011)


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For the government orphanages, there are three major problems that has contributed

to the pertaining issue:

1. Lack of conducive and nurturing environmentIn term of micro contact, the design treatment and planning of the orphanage

are too institutional: it is lack of conducive and nurturing environment to

nurture the orphans while the image of the orphanage always resemble a

typical institutionalization, making the orphans feel awkward, uncomfortable

and sudden changed of environment, effecting their physical growth and

psycho-social growth. Ahmad (2004) said " Perbezaan perubahan suasanatempat tinggal antara di rumah dengan di institusi mungkin merupakan antara

faktor yang menyumbang ketidakselesaan dari segi emosi di kalangan anak-

anak yatim dalam kajian ini

2. Mass scale of care and educationIn term of the scale usually the education and care were done in mass scale,

individual cases will be treated particularly with no dedicated caregiver which

in return the orphans get lack of attention and care. this exposes them to

negative consequences such as aggressive, anti social, etc. Haberdasher (2013)

said "John Bowlby noted that all children need a stable, responsible caregiverto attach to; without one, a child is set up to have difficulty with relationships

later in life. By definition of being institutionalized, however, children in

orphanages do not have a caregiver to attach to.


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In most cases, institutional look and environment of the orphanage has been said one

of the culprit that rises the psychological issues of the orphans. This is due to the fact that

most of the orphans come from a home environment when sudden change of the environment

give some impacts towards the psychology and development. This is why institutional care is

considered as something to be avoided for any children including the orphans. Another point

is that most of institutional centre do not give a full and dedicated care for every children that

live in the centre. All facilities including the most private one -the bedroom- are shared

together, eliminating the sense of privacy and tranquillity for the orphans. With the approach

of common concrete room design without any effort of benefiting nature to treat their

psychological problem, most of the approaches to solve the issues are planned through

physical activities rather than through architectural solution

.

Fi gure 1- The architectural image of Rumah Kanak-kanak under state government (RKK Kota Kinabalu, 2012)

Fi gure 2- The care treatment is done through mass scale (RKK Kota Kinabalu, 2012)


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Precedent Study 1: SOS Children Village, Aqaba, Jordan

4.2.Building ProfileArchitect :Jafar Tukan & Partners, Amman, Jordan

Client : SOS Childrens Village Association of Jordan, Amman,

Jordan

4.3.Project ObjectiveThe general programme objective which has become the concept was

to create, within an existing urban community, an environment where

orphaned children could enjoy living conditions that are as close as possible to

normal family life. This approach is a deinstitutionalization type of approach

for a residential care such as orphanage. According to Damluji (2001), these

village are built to achieve 3 objectives:

1. To create a warm and friendly environment for the orphans, at the sametime carry out the task of providing functional requirement for the user

of the village;

2. Bringing back the vernacular architecture of the area thorough modernrepresentation of distinctive architecture.

Fi gure 3- The arial view towards the SOS Children Village. Source: Damluji (2001)


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3. Achieving all the goals with deep consideration of economical designand high environmental consideration.

4.4.Strategies to achieve goalThrough author observation, these are the strategies used to achieve the goal of

the design:

1. To have a smaller groups care but in many groups;2. creating houses that accommodate nine children in each house;3. every house is looked after by a dedicated woman (aged between

twenty-eight and fifty-three);

4. The children are provided with private meals and tutoring;5. brother- and sister-like relationship with others within the family unit;

Fi gure 4- The concept of village through new interpretation of vernacular architecture has become the

main concept of SOS Children Village in Aqaba. Source: Damluji (2001)


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6. The father figure is represented by the village father (the director ofthe village who lives in the premises with his real family), his assistant

or deputy, and the other men who work in the village (Damluji, 2001)

4.5.Outcome from the studyThrough the study of SOS Children Village in Aqaba, these are the

relevant points extracted as the outcomes from the study:

1.

Type of space needed- the overview of the overall idea of the village

could give the idea for Space of accommodation

2. Scheme layout- The idea of natural village and micro neighbourhoodamong them, diminishing the institutionalized image

3. Building Scale- The proportion of children to building, humane scale tothe orphans, creating the comfort and giving a sense of secure

4. Location- The location is meant to blend the orphanage to thesurrounding context physically and mentally with the consideration of

attracting the public.

5. Smaller groups- to break them into small groups with dedicated caregiverfor each group: sense of belonging, family setting and creating more

privacy for them

6. Image- home and village design, deinstitutionalization approaches.


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4.6.Precedent Study 2: Municipal Orphanage, Amsterdam

4.6.1. Building ProfileArchitect :Aldo Van Eyck, Amsterdam

Client : Municipal Council of Amsterdam

Project Objective

The main goal of the project is to create an orphanage whereby the design

focused on a balance of forces to create both a home and small city on the outskirts

of Amsterdam. Due to the ideas of small city, the approaches has broken down the

idea of institutionalization by having a new way of approaching orphanage design.

Fi gure 5- The aerial view towards Municipal Orphanage of Amsterdam.

Source: Archdaily.com (2011)

Fi gure 3.16- The aerial view towards Municipal Orphanage of Amsterdam. The overall layout is formed on

orthogonal and diagonal grid Source: Archdaily.com (2011)


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4.6.2. Strategies to Achieve GoalAccording to author observation, these are the approaches used to realize the

idea:

1. Design based upon architectural elements of movement;2. Creating a decentralized urban node with many points of interaction

(nodes) within the plan;

3. Articulating inside and outside spaces with defined transitional in-between places;

4. house must be like a small city if its to be a real house, a city like alarge house if its to be a real city;

5. Rehumanizing the architecture;6. Spaces spatially opened to be created into a home;7. Smaller size for the residences, and a larger size for community

spaces;


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Discussion

After analysing the general condition of a few orphanages of the government, there

are plenty of things that has to be architecturally reconsidered in designing an orphanage.

Firstly, the image of the orphanage. An orphanage should portray an image that can meet the

psychological level of the user. In existing children centre of the government, the only way

they try to portray a suitable appearance for the children is only to paint the wall with

cartoons with some articulation of colours. As a matter of fact, most of the painting job is

after thought ideas to at least trying to enhance the environment for the children including the

orphans. In order to improve this, the future orphanage should consider the priority of having

suitable image for an orphanage as their condition of moving from a home environment to

institutional environment mostly will give negative impact towards their psychology and

physical developments. Creating wonders and unique images, with the consideration of their

respective psychological level (infant, toddler, preschooler, etc), will help to overcome their

feeling of living in institutional centre which will become their new home instead.

Secondly, the care treatment should not be done in mass scale as this approach will

reduce the attention for every orphan in the centre thus creating a feeling of being neglected.

Moreover, mass scale care treatment will not create a good bonding between the orphans and

the caregiver, which this type of bonding is a necessary for every small children to help their

development of psychological growth. The absence of this elements create a nuisance

towards their mental development. Mass scale care also reduce the privacy of the orphans.

They are put together in one big room and all the beds are arranged to fill up the room. This

is not a good nature of normal children as we realise that normal children always growth well

if they have their own space and room like what normal parents will do.


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Thirdly, as mention in the Quran, nature plays great role for human understanding and

growth. This should be considered as part of the design solution for orphans psychological

issue. Currently most of the orphanages do not consider nature as part of the design, instead,

most of the structures are just as concrete jungle - hard, cubicle and the absence of green and

soft element. The playgrounds built for the children are all stagnant and are not flexible

enough for the kids to explore. This failure will not help to improve psychological problems

of the orphans.

Muslim Orphanage's Village

In order to break the current paradigm, the concept of village has been proposed for

this research as the design solution. The concept alone literally tries to initiate a new

impression towards orphanage. From the word itself, it can be understood that the state of the

orphanage will be somehow like a small community living a small township called a village.

The environment will be tranquil, the residential will be in smaller units, the nature will be

their neighbourhood and the village itself able to sustain. The term 'Muslim' is associated

with the concept is meant to emphasize the beauty of Islam in treating orphans. Besides, the

main focus for the user will be only from Muslim. The implementation of Islamic teaching

will be the main guidance for the orphanage with the combination of latest finding and

approaches in term of psychological impact such as the role of nature, colours and space

quality.

The village is divided to three sub-villages according to the division of ages made by

one of the wisest companion of the prophet Muhammad, Saidina Ali bin Abi Talib, which

are:


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1. Phase of playing - from the age of 0 to 7 years old2. Phase of discipline - from the age of 8 - 14 years old3. Phase of companionship - 14 and above

(tazkir.wordpress.com, 2008)

Due to this difference environment needed for each group, the village itself will be divided to

3 sub villages which are:

1. Al-Mal'ab Village (Village of Playground) for phase of playing2. At-Ta'dib Village (Village of Discipline Lesson) for phase of discipline3. Ar-rafiq Village (Village of Companionship) for phase of companionship

However to give more focus on the complexity of the sub village, only one village will be the

main subject for the design solution which is the al-Mal'ab Village.

Conclusion

The analysis and discussion shows that the current design of orphanage and children

centre of the government need a critical improvements in order to give a better life for

orphans. The huge impact of the improvement will benefit the crucial growth of mental and

physical of orphans. As Islam gives priority of giving a good care for orphans, some action of

shifting the paradigm should be made to achieve the living standard of orphan outlined by

Islam. From the study as well, we can conclude that most of the problems are due to lack of

consideration in psychological aspect of the orphanage design. This should be the main


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Muslim Oprhanage's Village

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