The chief architect of the National Mosque, Datuk Baharuddin Abu Kassim died today at the age of 95. He along with Howard Ashley and Ikmal Hisham Albakri were involved in designing the mosque which opened in 1965 with a capacity of 15,000 people.
The National Mosque held the status of the largest mosque in Malaysia until 1988 when it was overtaken by the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque in Shah Alam. The deceased was also the chief architect of the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque.
The cause of Datuk Baharuddin's death has not been disclosed but his death is seen as a great loss of a figure in the national architecture community. He was born on 1 October 1929 in Jeram, Selangor and received his higher education from the University of Manchester majoring in architecture and urban planning.
He then worked in the Town and Country Planning Department before moving to the Public Works Department until he held the position of senior architect. Later he established Jurubena Bertiga with Dato' Lim Cheong Keat and Lim Chin See.
In addition to the National Mosque and the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque, he is also the architect of the Islamic College of Malaya Mosque, the Jamek An-Nur Labuan Mosque, and the State Mosque, Negeri Sembilan, all of which have iconic designs. Because of his contribution to the country's architecture, Datuk Baharuddin Abu Kassim was awarded a gold medal from the Society of Malaysian Architects (PAM) in 2009.