The majestic Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque (also known as the Grand Mosque) in Abu Dhabi has been described as the most striking religious and national landmark in the city to date. Now the lighting has won Speirs and Major Associates international accolades for their design.The awards include two Middle East Lighting Design Awards (MELDA) – Project of the Year and Best Public Building Lighting Project. The project uses a huge ETC ACN network for remote device management as well as Congo control systems, ETC Matrix Mk II SineWave dimming and several hundred ETC Source Fours.
With a brief of creating inspired lighting appropriate to this iconic civic building, both externally and internally, and emphasise its standing as a gateway into the city, Speirs and Major specified building-wide ETC dimming and control systems. Keith Bradshaw, associate director at Speirs and Major says: “Given the scale and the sophistication of the control system we required, we knew there were very few people who could manage it properly. It needed to be a company who were able to think laterally when faced with complex and unique problems and we knew ETC had the flexibility and brainpower to deal with it. ETC’s product reliability is self-evident, but there is just something about the mentality of its people and their background – we knew they could handle something of this scale.”
Accommodating more than 40,000 worshippers in its prayer halls and courtyard, this is the largest mosque in UAE and one of the largest in the world, covering an area of more than 22,000 square metres. Internally, the lighting had to celebrate 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 breath-taking lighting complements 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.
Arguably one of the most important architectural buildings in modern UAE society, the Grand Mosque has taken ten years to complete and materials were sourced from all over the world to ensure the building was finished to the highest quality.
For more information on ETC and its products, please visit www.etcconnect.com