On October 27, 2010, Mount Merapi in Central Java erupted. The lavas destroyed the hamlets and villages located at the foot of the mountain. One of the affected village was Kopeng Hamlet, Kepuharjo Village, Cangkringan, Sleman regency, Yogyakarta. This hamlet, which is the last village at the foot of Mount Merapi and the last post before the climbers set off to climb up to Mount Merapi, was ravaged and buried in the sand and thick volcanic ash up to 2-3 meters.

In 2011, Baitul Maal Muamalat’s disaster response team conducted survey and dissemination of CSR programs to Kopeng hamlet. In the survey and early socialization, the team tried to get information about the psychological condition of the people after disaster.
At the time of the survey, the team found a damaged mosque.
Apparently, this mosque is important for the area because the building is also used for Islamic education. Thus, Muamalat’s disaster response team decided to renovate the mosque.

After surveying the location, the Muamalat team accompanied by
Urbane Community team, formulated a few things: some of the mosque’s walls can still be maintained but the roof’s structure need repair, second floor will be added to maximize the function, the volcanic ash and sand from Mount Merapi’s eruption are scattered in the vicinity will be used for building materials.

The brick is made from Merapi volcanic ashes that spread around the area. The ashes are pressed into brick’s form using pressing tools. The training begins by bringing brick-craftsmen from Bandung to the location. From this training, residents were expected to produce 20,000 pieces of brick to be used in the construction of the mosque, designed by M. Ridwan Kamil.

The building concept is game of light and shadows by creating lots of small openings in both the mosque’s wall and roof. The openings are created by composing the brick in such a way forming Allah’s calligraphy. A volunteer team member, called Ikrar, helped to make the Allah’s calligraphy in the composition of the brick assembly.

The mosque finished its construction on October 2011, and operate not only for religion purposes but also for Islamic education center for kids and watchtower. However, the openings on this mosque, both on the walls and the roof, that allows enormous amount of light, also let the air-flow go through freely. Because the building is located
at the foot of the mountain with an average temperature of 16-17°C, the temperature inside the mosque became very cold. To overcome this, in the end, most of the openings are covered with glass.

Photographer : Ikrar, Pambudi Yoga Pradana