The Building as a Statement of an Artefact: The Mijmara B. Yapicioglu 1 and L. Cazacova 2 1,2 College of Engineering, Dhofar University, P. O. Box: 2509, Postal Code: 211, Salalah, Sultanate of Oman; 1 Email: byapigioglu@du.edu.om, kaylabalkiz@yahoo.com 2 Email: liudmila@du.edu.om, liudmila_cazacova@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The impact of the socio-cultural behaviour and traditions on the built environment is undeniable. Some of these impacts are unconscious and instinctive whereas some are direct and didactic, speaking by a more or less perfect realisation, or through a code of symbols, accompanied by traditions which explained them. This research aims to describe the importance of frankincense and incense burning for Dhofar region, Oman and how this culture of incense burning dictates the buildings’ features of its modern architecture by mimicking the ornament of local incense burner, mijmara, where the building represents the artefact and the myth of incense burning culture, bukhoor Salalah, capital of Dhofar region, is used as a case study for this research which intends to examine the impact of mijmara design features in architecture of Dhofar region, Oman through field study. The research results showed that the unity and reoccurrence of homogeneous features in architecture is oriented towards their unique perception of incense burning culture. This research, with regard to its results, is an applied research and its methods are based on field study using ‘artefacts and site’ tactics through in situ documentation. Keywords: Culture, artefact, architectural symbolism, frankincense, mijmara, Dhofar Mathematics Subject Classification: 62J12, 62G99 International Journal of Ecology & Development™ Classification : Q12, D24 1. INTRODUCTION The paper focuses on the cultural reflections on modern architecture in Dhofar region, Oman and more specifically how the culture of frankincense, incense burning and the incense burner, mijmara, manifests itself visually in architecture practice through visual cues. Some of these manifestations are unconscious and instinctive whereas some are direct and didactic, speaking by a more or less perfect realisation, or through a code of symbols, accompanied by traditions which explained them and myths which talks to the soul. Therefore, architecture, in this study, is understood as a medium, and a didactic statement of ‘how a given society ought to live, think, and/or feel and as such carries mythic content (Robinson, 1990; Joroff & Morse, 1984, pp. 15-28). The research presented here depends on the artefactual documentation to establish the relationships between cultural factors and the symbolic mythic content of modern architecture, in this case the culture of incense burning, bukhoor. International Journal of Ecology & Development Year 2016; Volume 31, Issue No. 3; Int. J. Ecol. Dev. ISSN 0972-9984 ( Print ); ISSN 0973-7308 (Online) Copyright © 2016 IJED (CESER Publications) www.ceser.in/ceserp/ www.ceserp.com/cp-jour/ www.ceserpublications.com