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

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.

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.

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 Reviews Literature 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 Studies Precedent 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.

3. Case Studies For 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 Synthesis Discussion 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 orphans 4. The design solution will focus on how to overcome the psychiatric issues among the Muslim orphans of 0-6 years old.

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)

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)

For the government orphanages, there are three major problems that has contributed to the pertaining issue:

1.

Lack of conducive and nurturing environment In 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 suasana tempat tinggal antara di rumah dengan di institusi mungkin merupakan antara faktor yang menyumbang ketidakselesaan dari segi emosi di kalangan anakanak yatim dalam kajian ini

2.

Mass scale of care and education In 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 caregiver to 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.

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

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 .

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

Precedent Study 1: SOS Children Village, Aqaba, Jordan

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

4.2. Building Profile Architect Client : Jafar Tukan & Partners, Amman, Jordan : SOS Childrens Village Association of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

4.3. Project Objective The 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 same time carry out the task of providing functional requirement for the user of the village;

2.

Bringing back the vernacular architecture of the area thorough modern representation of distinctive architecture.

3.

Achieving all the goals with deep consideration of economical design and high environmental consideration.

Figure 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)

4.4. Strategies to achieve goal Through author observation, these are the strategies used to achieve the goal of the design: 1. 2. 3. To have a smaller groups care but in many groups; creating houses that accommodate nine children in each house; every house is looked after by a dedicated woman (aged between twenty-eight and fifty-three); 4. 5. The children are provided with private meals and tutoring; brother- and sister-like relationship with others within the family unit;

6.

The father figure is represented by the village father (the director of the 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 study Through 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 neighbourhood among them, diminishing the institutionalized image

3.

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

4.

Location - The location is meant to blend the orphanage to the surrounding context physically and mentally with the consideration of attracting the public.

5.

Smaller groups - to break them into small groups with dedicated caregiver for each group: sense of belonging, family setting and creating more privacy for them

6.

Image - home and village design, deinstitutionalization approaches.

4.6. Precedent Study 2: Municipal Orphanage, Amsterdam

Figure 5 - The aerial view towards Municipal Orphanage of Amsterdam. Source: Archdaily.com (2011)

4.6.1. Building Profile Architect Client : Aldo Van Eyck, Amsterdam : 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.

Figure 3.16 - The aerial view towards Municipal Orphanage of Amsterdam. The overall layout is formed on orthogonal and diagonal grid Source: Archdaily.com (2011)

4.6.2. Strategies to Achieve Goal According to author observation, these are the approaches used to realize the idea:

1. 2.

Design based upon architectural elements of movement; Creating a decentralized urban node with many points of interaction (nodes) within the plan;

3.

Articulating inside and outside spaces with defined transitional inbetween places;

4.

house must be like a small city if its to be a real house, a city like a large house if its to be a real city;

5. 6. 7.

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

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.

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:

1. Phase of playing - from the age of 0 to 7 years old 2. Phase of discipline - from the age of 8 - 14 years old 3. 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 playing 2. At-Ta'dib Village (Village of Discipline Lesson) for phase of discipline 3. 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

priority as the users mainly the orphan will enter the orphanage with current state of feeling grief, sad and worry, and the orphanage at its first impression should give a positive impact as an earlier treatment to the orphans. Finally, the Muslim Orphanage's Village is proposed as a thesis for this research in order to give design solution for the rising issues.