Mosques are the most significant building in Muslim communities, where people perform their prayers and gather for social activities. The architecture and design of mosques have undergone significant changes over the centuries due to cultural, economic, and climatic factors. This raises a question regarding the design of the modern mosque. This paper analyses the physical characteristics of two Mosques located in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia, built at different time periods: the historic Al-Shafi'i Mosque, and the contemporary Al-Farsi Mosque. The analysis focuses on investigating the different design techniques used to lighten the interior space, and how this can be related to the identity of the mosques. In addition, it explores how the orientation of mosques, determined by the Qibla direction, has impacted the indoor lighting quality. This study provides some critical observations demonstrating the importance of the use of light in the mosque's interior, and the essential impact this has on psychological, physiological and behavioural responses of the mosques' visitors, with a focus on both daylighting and artificial lighting.

This paper entails a non-western analysis of the contemporary home environment. The main focus of this study is the role of women in family living room design, particularly in the context of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to determine how the interior design of domestic space offers opportunities for women to present their identity. Saudi women using their living space within the home can play a role in expressing the identity of those women through the experience of designing this space and the interaction with its objects. The methodological framework has been structured into an ethnographical approach, which involved in-depth interviews with middle class housewives in their living rooms, aimed to seek information about experiences, interaction and values in the home environment, and enables identity presentation in the family living room. In addition, associated methods, such as photographic and video records, coding the living space features and visual observation of the living room were used to enrich data collection and unpack the environmental meaning. These mixed methods helped to understand the reality of women's life experiences and provide a compelling portrait of women's roles and identity within their living space. This paper explains the expression of individual (women) identity and the expression of group (family) identity within the living rooms. The living room in Jeddah homes is the centre space of symbolic interaction, where "I" meets "them", where women show how well they have presented themselves and the values of their families in the living room context.

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Consumption is an active process that engages the social world for individuals to make use of certain products. For many, the living room is the locus of product use, social activities, cultural values, and the personal narrative of the people who live in it. Consumers engage with their furniture in order for it to function effectively for them: It is thus used to furnish both the home and the self as well. Creating a certain living space with a particular use of furniture and interior decoration is the precise way in which the resident forms its arrangements, and builds a relationship with the surrounding objects in that living space. This activity, I argue, positions the residents in the process of presenting their personality characteristics and cultural identity. The Ethnographic approach is most appropriate methodology for research into such a personal area: the living room within the domestic environment.The topic of this research falls between different fields of studies including consumerism and media. This research reviews the influence of advertising in magazines and furniture shops on the meaning of living space design and how that encourages higher levels of consumption.Keywords: domestic environment, furnishing and decoration, living space, residents, identity, culture, media, consumption Research ContextThis research entails a close analysis of the contemporary home environment-specifically living room furniture and its arrangement. The study of the home environment is a noteworthy trend in design studies, one which opens the boundaries of interior design to speak to a number of economic, social, cultural, and psychological factors of influence. My proposed research therefore investigates an as-yet unexplored avenue regarding the unique way by which interior arrangements and residential furnishings can present residents' personalities and cultural identity, by creating a certain living space with a particular use of furniture and interior decoration. The precise way in which the resident forms living space arrangements, and builds a relationship with the surrounding objects in that space, positions the resident in the process of presenting her/his personality characteristics and cultural identity. The aim of this research is to raise awareness of living room furniture as a sign of cultural identity in the context of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and to articulate how residents leave personality footprints on the space they inhabit. The research aims to demonstrate that interior design is more complex than simply shaping the use of a space, but also reinforces and presents the resident's personality and identity.