Mapping the “Mahkota Atap Masjid” or Decorative Roof Finial of Traditional Mosques in Malacca

Decorative roof finials, also known as Mahkota Atap Masjid, are a unique identity and hallmark of Islam in Malacca. Today, there are more than 160 mosques throughout the state of Malacca, however, only 38 of them have a decorative roof finial. Therefore, the objectives of this research are: to map the location of these mosques and document their designs for heritage documentation. This research applies a qualitative methodology using air photography via drone (model DJI Phantom 3 Standard) for data documentation and typological analysis for establishing types of designs to study.Keywords: Mosque; Islam; Malay; ArchitectureeISSN: 2398-4287 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v4i11.1760