Named after His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late President of the UAE, the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi was opened late in 2007. The structure covers an area of more than 22,000 square metres and some 210,000 cubic metres of concrete and 33,000 tonnes of steel reinforcement was used in its construction. It is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates and the world's third largest one. Each of the four minarets rises to a height of 107m, with the main dome reaching 80m.Winning best interior lighting design in the Public Building Category of the 2008 Middle East Lighting Design Awards, Speirs and Major Associates were also awarded ‘Middle East Project of the Year' for their stunning design.
In the central hall the Qibla prayer wall was decorated with Islamic floral designs and gold mosaics. Crescent Lighting worked closely with Speirs and Major Associates to provide a fibre optic lighting system to do the design justice.
More than 2000 metres of BPAK150 optical cable were used, powered by CREAD068 projectors manufactured by Crescent's parent company, Energy Focus. The side emitting fibre optic cable mimics the designs cut into the marble cladding. The cable is fixed behind the marble and throws light onto white reflector behind, the design seeming to ‘glow'.
A similar approach was taken with the script cut out in the marble.
This time the Lightbeam QR linear profile was used to throw light back onto the glass material behind the cut outs.
Keith Bradshaw of Speirs and Major Associates explains: "The Energy Focus projector and Lightbar fitted the requirements of the design like a glove. We tested many different light sources but found that the fixed angle focus of the Lightbeam illuminated the inner gold curtain detail in an even manner yet with a certain sparkle and brilliance which suited the material. The installation frame and support for the wall was very complex and the Lightbeam was very well suited to fix discreetly to the mounting channel of the marble wall."
Nintynine two-metre lengths of Lightbeam QR were fitted and these again were powered by the CREAD068 I projector, well over 200 being supplied to the whole project.
The Energy Focus CREAD068 projector is unique in having a patented Compound Parabolic Collector (CPC) at the very heart of the optical system. The CPC collects the light generated by the 70W AC HQI lamp directly from the arc tube and at the same time directs the light beams to the ideal angle (35 degrees max) to efficiently launch the light into the fibre.
The CPC non-imaging system mixes the colour, giving a very even distribution, and then feeds it out in two outputs to the fibre.
"The double output CREAD068 is very efficient in terms of the efficacy at transmitting light into the harness. We found the single 70W HQI double output unit gave the same relative intensity as conventional single output 150W HQI projector" commented Keith Bradshaw.
The architectural design of the mosque as a landmark building focused on the factors that would make a lasting impression on the worshipper. For example, the dimensions of the central prayer hall are 150 x 25 m on plan with 23 m clear height to the ceiling.
The lighting celebrates all the architectural details and features, while providing a level of functionality for reading and prayer, as well as being suitable for TV broadcasting. The sophisticated lighting strengthens the mosque's impressive interior design, which incorporates Italian white marble, inlaid floral designs and gold mosaics and, in the main prayer hall, the world's largest hand-woven Persian carpet.
After 10 years in the making, the Grand Mosque is arguably one of the most important architectural buildings in modern UAE society and materials were sourced from all over the world to ensure the building was finished to the highest quality.
