April 20th, 2014

Today, in professional language on a professional topic. The modern architecture of the Emirates is one of the main tools to fool the minds of tourists and investors around the world. People walk with their heads up at the tall skyscrapers, take pictures, admire, and some even say that Dubai is the leader of modern architecture! But they are wrong. The fact is that Dubai is a leader only in the pace of construction and show-off. Millions of square meters a year of shops, offices, housing, hundreds of kilometers of ideal roads, overpasses and interchanges, canals are being dug, islands are being built, construction is in full swing, tons of money are being spent. In such a turmoil, there is often no time for quality; you need to quickly finish everything, hand it over, sell it, screw everyone’s ears and move on to the next project. Any adequate architect will tell you that the highest quality, most delicious and durable architecture is made by Holland, Germany, England, the USA and Canada, and everyone else is far from them in this regard. But there is undoubtedly something to see; there are 15-20 top-class buildings throughout the city! By the way, they were designed by the same Americans, Dutch, Germans, etc... The Arabs themselves, of course, do not have any knowledge, traditions or schools, so here everything was bought, architects were bought, builders were bought, design standards were bought, materials were bought, even time was bought, only Money can't buy taste. If the customer has poor taste, nothing will help, that’s why there are so many funny, ridiculous glass sheds with turrets, columns, strange transitions and curlicues. In general, there’s a lot of everything, let’s go!

Let's start with a building called "lakeside residence" I noticed it from afar while riding the subway. The façade was designed very interestingly. There is a certain module that transforms into small and large squares, interrupting, then appearing again, this creates a beautiful effect of fragmentation and detail, but at the same time it does not visually fall apart due to the monochromatic nature of the materials. The division is very unusual for Dubai, since more often it is either horizontal, or vertical, or simply a glass form.

Nearby there is a skyscraper "Diamond" - one of the tallest in the city, many people like it, I was somehow not impressed

The Dubai Metro stations are wonderful. The more I wear them, the more I like them. Beautiful shapes, decent quality of construction, cleanliness and most importantly functionality. Each metro station provides city residents with air-conditioned crossings across wide roads, free toilets, information boards, ATMs and shops. All this is separated from the turnstiles to the trains, so it is accessible to any passerby; behind the turnstiles there is only access. The technology of the stations is very well thought out, convenient and logical.

"Infinity Tower" is the tallest "twisted" skyscraper in the world. Once the great Santiago Calatrava built a twisted skyscraper in the city of Malmö (Sweden), since then it has become a fashion to twist the volume of the tower relative to its base. I know of at least four similar buildings, they differ in their top, colors, degree of rotation, and some details. In my opinion, the coolest one was built by Calatrava in Sweden.

The main idea of ​​the Dubai skyscraper was that the top would seem to dissolve into the sky. On the computer model it looked exactly like this. In reality, it didn't work out very well. The boundary where the rooms end and the open roof begins is too clearly visible; the plates hang in the air too evenly and because of this, the effect of unfinished rather than dissolved is created.

Nevertheless, the building is very cool and impressive, it’s just a pity that potentially it could have turned out a little better if the main idea of ​​the authors had not failed.

There is a traffic circle nearby and the tower emphasizes this circular traffic and looks very cool when you drive past.

But the famous Atlantis Hotel on the Jumeirah Palm, one of the most expensive and pompous in the world. The Arabs wanted to build a palace in the style of an "Oriental fairy tale". Despite the fact that they never had palaces. There were palaces in Iran, Turkey (Byzantium), but not in Dubai. For the life of me, this reminds me of Stalin’s high-rise buildings in Moscow, with the caveat that the proportions of these high-rise buildings are a thousand times more beautiful. The building is surprisingly disproportionate; huge symmetrical blocks of diarrhea pink color are crowned by dozens of small emerald green towers with incomprehensible decoration. The arch saves the day; its shape is beautiful, clear, and it gives airiness and splendor to the entrance. But overall I don’t like the building at all, I don’t understand what everyone found in it.

Near the hotel, everyone takes pictures of themselves, their children, grandchildren and dogs. I didn’t take pictures at Atlantis - I haven’t been to Dubai! In fact, these are the only signs of life there - the place is surprisingly dead. There is nothing to do there, they are not allowed into the hotel territory, there are no pedestrian paths, there is no access to the sea, the embankment is just 10 kilometers of the same nothing. In the end, everyone takes pictures, looks at expensive cars and leaves.

The first line of skyscrapers in Dubai Marina is generally tolerable, but a bit rustic in my opinion, but comprehensive.

Next to the twisted skyscraper there are these twin brothers. It looks like they were copied from a children's computer game. But to be honest, I like them, there is something fresh and humorous about them.

Of course, no review would be complete without the Burj Khalifa. It is simply beautiful, one of the most beautiful buildings in the city and in the world in general. By the way, it can be seen from anywhere in the city - it’s easy to navigate

The building has become so iconic that everything connected with it in any way is considered a success. Any company that has designed even a toilet or a chandelier in it brags about it to the whole world. The view from the window, where the outlines of the tower are visible a hundred kilometers away in the haze, is considered the best and most expensive, not to mention those who are closer, if you have a friend living in Kalifa, this is already an indicator of your status)))

Well, I repeat once again that the tower looks much more impressive in real life than any photographs - come and see

Next to Kalifa there are two buildings “Boulevard Plaza Tower”, extremely simple in shape, but they look great due to the interesting layout of glass and interesting relative position.

But on the next street there is this! No comments... Don’t think that I don’t like curlicues, columns and arches, in fact I love this much more than glass, iron and concrete, but modern architects have completely lost the skill of creating beauty in classicism, there are isolated examples, but this rather an exception...

How do you like a skyscraper in the shape of Big Ben? It no longer suggests any thoughts other than the author’s lack of imagination, conscience and own opinion. It’s not like making a salad in the shape of a hedgehog, eating it and no, this nonsense will last for decades. The most amazing thing is that someone paid a lot of money for the project, someone drew it and someone else approved it...

Or this... I can’t even imagine what was going on in the architect’s head.

There are normal buildings, just normal ones, which have nothing to criticize for, but they don’t cause much awe either

But there is so much soullessness in the stupidly solid glazing of the boxes; looking at such houses gets boring after 20 seconds.

This whole palisade of skyscrapers looks very strange, of course there is no talk of any context, every building here is being built as if in an open field, there is money - higher, no money - lower, the facades are all different, different colors, different styles, probably already has It makes sense to come up with a separate style in architecture, which will be called Arabic Kitsch.

Rolex Tower - a cool hole at the top, interestingly laid out glass, the shape of the building is extremely simple.

Index Tower is the creation of the greatest Norman Foster. A very non-standard building in all respects, an interesting facade with small details, overall a beautiful building but a little gloomy.

And for dessert, the most delicious thing. This is the Abdulrahman Al Siddiq Mosque on the same Jumeirah Palm. This is definitely the most beautiful object on the bulk islands and one of the best in the city.

The uniqueness of this structure lies in its unconventionality. A new interpretation of religious architecture is becoming more relevant every day. The Catholics, in my opinion, went too far with this, but this was the Arabs’ first experience. The unconventional style of cubism-minimalism is a challenge that has developed over the centuries, I wonder how the parishioners themselves feel about it? But in an architectural sense, this is of course an experiment and an experiment that was 100% successful.

General form

A decorative wall made of glass panels with national patterns is moved away from the main wall and casts beautiful shadows on it - here it is, architectural yummy!

Probably soon there will be an underground parking lot for another shopping center. In the meantime, I’m walking here and saying hello to everyone!

Moral: People, shake the noodles out of your ears and look at the world soberly! Dubai is a show city, completely unsuited for life, especially for a Russian person. In places he is very beautiful, but all his beauty is so soulless and predictable, there is not a drop of romance and kindness in it. And when you admire the local achievements of architecture, keep in mind that building here is much easier and cheaper than in Russia, there is no complex centuries-old history, scoops in the heads, winter and rain, difficult soils, earthquakes, narrow streets of the historical city and outright vandalism of the townspeople , with all this, there is a small territory of the country, a lot of money and most importantly, the desire to invest it - you see the result for yourself.

How many architecturally amazing things are there already in Dubai, UAE? But it seems that the limit is still very, very far away. So the Dubai Holding company announced its plans to create a truly huge shopping and entertainment complex with an area of ​​about 4.5 square kilometers!

World Expo 2015 will be held in Milan, Italy. What architecturally interesting things can be seen there? And here, for example, is the UAE pavilion, which was designed by specialists from the architectural company Foster + Partners. The architects promise to immerse visitors to this pavilion in the atmosphere of ancient cities built in the desert.

In 2015, Abu Dhabi, UAE, will have its own Louvre. The complex of buildings on the water will be permeated with a subtle aesthetic of light and shadow, creating an unusually vibrant space for masterpieces of world art. The satellite museum of the famous Parisian museum was designed by specialists from the architectural company Ateliers Jean Nouvel.

One of the most attractive places in the city of Sharjah, UAE, in terms of entertainment and culture, is the Al Qasba complex. The two four-story buildings house galleries, shops, restaurants, and business centers. The Masrah Al Qasba Theater is also located here. Its interior was designed by architects from the company magma architecture.

Dubai, UAE, confidently stretches its high-rise buildings towards the sky. One of the interesting projects that took its rightful place under the scorching desert sun was the elegant office tower “O-14”. Designed by architects from Reiser + Umemoto, the building once again proved that the human mind is capable of much.

In this post I wanted to tell you about good modern architecture in the Emirates. It would seem that no one spares money, hundreds of new skyscrapers appear every year, the world's best architectural and construction companies are involved in the design and construction, the Emirates should simply be a sanctuary of good modern architecture. Actually this is not true. Money can't buy taste, so the Arabs continue to fill the desert with ridiculous boxes of computer games. I was never able to find truly interesting, beautiful and modern buildings, so the post turned out to be very short.

01. Most of the Emirati skyscrapers look like blanks from a cheap computer game.

02. Or so, an ordinary residential area of ​​a Russian city looks much more interesting (“more interesting” is not “better”).

03. The best thing I saw was the 160-meter Capital Gate tower in Abu Dhabi. The developers of ADNEC and the architects of the RMJM project submitted a joint application to the Guinness Book of Records to recognize the skyscraper as the most inclined building in the world. The 35-story building will deviate from its axis by 18 degrees, almost 4 times more than the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa (Leaning Tower of Pisa), which currently deviates by 3.97 degrees.

04. Due to its unique shape, Capital Gate is constructed on top of a heavy-duty reinforced steel mesh. A dense mesh is placed on top of the often installed 490 piles, which are driven to a depth of 30m.

05. Inside Capital Gate there will be a 5-star Hyatt at Capital Center hotel, as well as exclusive office space. http://www.capitalgate.ae/

06.

07.

08. A good complex of two buildings is located near the Khalifa Tower. It's called "Boulevard Plaza".

09. The towers have 42 and 34 floors, designed by Aedas studio: http://www.aedas.com/MiddleEast/BoulevardPlaza. I like the rather simple and laconic architecture of these buildings.

10. Here is a very interesting building, unfortunately, I didn’t have time to get to it. Tower O-14 is located on the shore of Business Bay, on the opposite shore of which the Burj Khalifa rises. The 21-story office building stands out among its surroundings with its “perforated” facade: about 1,000 round openings of different diameters have been made in its 40 cm thick concrete outer layer. They are located in such a way as to promote natural ventilation and lighting of the building, while preventing overheating. Inside the concrete façade is a second, glass one: a meter-long gap between them creates a “chimney effect”, ensuring natural cooling of the building.

Architects Reiser+Umemoto, USA.

11. It’s a rare case when the implementation looks much better than the project. Emirates Park Towers Hotel & Spa, two 395-meter towers according to the project, were just another tasteless Arab skyscrapers. Although the construction is not finished yet, in my opinion they look good, some national motifs remain, but overall they look modern and stylish.

12. Arabs often attract stars of world architecture, but this does not always help. The Index Tower, 328 m high (80 floors), was designed by Norman Foster. The 25 lower levels are occupied by offices, the upper 47 are apartments.

13. In the architect’s sketches it was much more airy and interesting, and the result was a gray, faceless box that looked like a waste incineration plant.

14. The famous Burj al-Arab, one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, looks pretty good. The building stands in the sea at a distance of 280 meters from the shore on an artificial island connected to the land by a bridge. With a height of 321 meters, it was the tallest hotel in the world, but then, also in Dubai, the Rose Tower hotel, 333 meters high, opened in April 2008.
Construction of the hotel began in 1994, and it opened to visitors on December 1, 1999. The hotel was built in the shape of the sail of a dhow, an Arabian ship. Closer to the top there is a helipad, and on the other side is the Al-Muntaha (Arabic: The Highest) restaurant, both supported by cantilever beams. For a luxury hotel, the architecture is very bold. But inside everything is as it should be - gypsy baroque. Architect - Atkins Middle East.

15. The interiors are also a problem. I only liked the interiors in the tourist part of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, but there will be a separate story about it.

16. And a nice fountain in the Dubai Mall.

17. In the near future, it is planned to build a lot of interesting and unusual buildings in the Emirates. Unfortunately, the implementation often differs for the worse from the project, so for now all we can do is wait.

Here are links to descriptions of some interesting projects:
http://archi.ru/foreign/news/news_current.html?nid=6849&fl=1&sl=1
http://archi.ru/foreign/news/news_current.html?nid=3920&fl=1&sl=1
http://archi.ru/foreign/news/news_current.html?nid=28983&fl=1&sl=1
http://archi.ru/foreign/news/news_current.html?nid=28264&fl=1&sl=1
http://archi.ru/foreign/news/news_current.html?nid=5490&fl=1&sl=1

More about good architecture and interesting projects:
Houseboats in Amsterdam

The United Arab Emirates is a young state, whose age - 40 years - seems infantile by the standards of history. In the pre-oil era, large families living in one-story adobe houses with palm leaf roofs survived by fishing and trading pearls. Since the beginning of oil exports in the 1950s, along with foreign investment, reinforced concrete frame architecture, the so-called International Style architecture, has come to Arab settlements. Gradually, small settlements on the shores of the bay began to develop into cities - economic centers populated not only by indigenous residents, but also by foreign specialists.

The number of expatriates increased every year, and the demand for residential urban architecture, which has all the features of comfortable European housing, grew accordingly. Numerous foreign companies began to develop the economic space of the young state, building multi-story office buildings. The formation of a modern urban environment required appropriate architecture, which only the Western model of an industrial city could offer: the Muslim world did not have such a resource. Such large capitalist centers as Chicago and New York were taken as the standard.
Western architects who came to the Arabian Peninsula used their usual construction techniques in a completely different cultural environment and climatic conditions. High-rise towers literally rising out of the sand seem like a mirage in the reality of the Arab world. Joseph Pexton's Crystal Palace, where the frame system was first used, went through a series of evolutionary turns, took the form of a soaring skyscraper and ended up in the Middle East, among the desert.

Many superlatives can be applied to characterize the city of Dubai: the largest in the United Arab Emirates, the fastest growing, the most ambitious; It not only has the tallest skyscrapers in the world and the largest artificial islands, but also has more of them than any other city on the globe. This place owes such an abundance of extremes to the policies of the emirate’s sheikhs and the influx of money from oil exports in the 70s of the last century

Dubai stretches along the coast of the Persian Gulf, sandwiched between water and desert sands, and is developing along the Gulf and deeper into it thanks to the creation of a series of artificial islands. The main transport artery of the city is Sheikh Zayed Street - a wide, powerful avenue connecting all districts of the city.
As in the sixties, Western-style residential architecture is being built for foreign specialists from Europe and America, while local residents themselves prefer, following traditions, to live in low-rise buildings with large families. This differentiation determines the appearance of the city, where skyscraper districts rise sharply above the mass of similar villas of indigenous Arabs.
Planted on local Arabian soil, the architecture of the Western metropolis does not take root; high-rise development areas remain a habitat for tourists and expatriates, while simultaneously serving the function of attracting foreign holidaymakers and professionals to the city. Accordingly, the function of new buildings that go into the sky is determined by the needs of the urban environment: as in the 60s, the bulk of the development consists of offices and apartments.

National Bank of Dubai

One of the first iconic buildings in the style of modern high-rise architecture is the Dubai National Bank building, built by NORR Group Consultants International Ltd (Toronto and Dubai) in 1998. A native of Uruguay working in Canada, Carlos Ott, who is the author of the design of the Opera Bastille in Paris, was chosen as the architect. NORR Group is known as the creator of high-tech design: the use of high engineering technologies combined with clear silhouettes of minimalist forms. The design concept for the bank building is derived from the traditional Arabian dhow, the shape of which also inspired the design of the Burj Al Arab hotel. The bank has an elegant profile, emphasized by the curve of the mirror surface of the facade, symbolizing a sail. The main mass of the structure forms the mast, and the lower mass forms the body of the boat itself. The design of the building, perched on the banks of the Creek, references the traditional culture of the indigenous people of Dubai.

Emirates Towers

Dubai's aspirations to become the new trade and financial center of the Middle East were intended to be symbolized by the two so-called “Emirates Towers”. This project was also carried out by NORR Group; designer Hasel Wong completed the project in 2000. The two triangular twin towers are located on Sheikh Zayed Road, the central and most important street of the city. The complex consists of an office tower (355 meters) and a hotel tower (305 meters). Two slender silhouettes made of metal and glass, rising on a granite horizontally stepped base, become the focal point of the urban landscape. Each building has a triangle at its base, the side of which is 55.5 m; it is believed that this shape has a sacred meaning in Islam. A pattern of equilateral triangles extends across the entire surface of the 54-story office tower, balancing the main structure to the north and the granite mass of the wall to the south. This geometric grid flows seamlessly into the pattern on the marble walls of the interior, the central core of which is formed by 16 elevators serving the four financial institutions in their respective areas of the tower. The lower part of the building consists of an 8-story glass drum. The building's triangle is emphasized by a three-legged structure that frames the circular lower floors. In the hotel tower, an 8-story drum forms an atrium with a palm courtyard and a cafe.

Emirates Towers

Investing money received from oil production in the development of tourism infrastructure, in 1993, Sheikh of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ordered the Jumeirah Beach Resort project from the English company WS Atkins, consisting of the Jumeriyah Beach Hotel, the Wild Wadi water park and the crowning the entire complex of the luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel. Architect Tom Wright had to create a hotel that would become a symbol of Dubai, a hotel whose shape would be easily remembered and reproduced, like the silhouette of the Egyptian pyramids or the Eiffel Tower. As a starting point, echoing the idea of ​​the National Bank of Dubai project, the shape of a dhow with a billowing sail was chosen. It was decided to build the “sail” structure itself on an artificial island at a distance of 280 meters from the shore, to which a causeway leads. This project marked the beginning of the creation of a series of artificial islands along the coast.

Burj Al Arab

The structure features a steel skeleton wrapped around a reinforced concrete tower. Forming a mast, the 2 wings of the structure diverge in the shape of the letter V. The space between the wings is enclosed in fiberglass coated with Teflon. Curving, this surface forms a sail inflated by the wind and creates the world's highest atrium inside (180 meters with a height of the structure itself of 321 meters).

The material from which the sail is made is called dyneon, and it is divided into 12 panels mounted vertically. During the day, this material creates a soft, milky color that penetrates the interior of the hotel, and at night, both inside and outside, it emits light of different colors. A characteristic feature of the Burj Al Arab is the helipad located on the console; hotel guests have the privilege of reaching the apartments by helicopter.

The interior of the Burj Al Arab is criticized by critics for excessive luxury, bordering on a complete lack of taste. Mimicking the decor of a palace apartment, the design combines eastern and western cultural influences, but above all, it demonstrates extravagance and wealth. The decoration uses precious stones, gilding, and marble.

Burj Khalifa

The landscape of modern Dubai is crowned by the world's tallest building, 828 meters high, the Burj Khalifa. Built on the shore of an artificial lake, together with the Dubai jetty, the Burj Khalifa forms the ensemble of a new district of the city - Downtown. The Chicago School of Architecture has extensive experience in the construction of high-rise buildings, and a Chicago firm was chosen to create the world's tallest towerSkidmore, Ownings & Merrill LLP ( SOM). According to architect Adrian Smith, one of the most important things for him in designing the Burj Khalifa was to provide the most complete view of the landscape surrounding the tower. To do this, he creates a structure that has the shape of a letter in plan.Y. The architect was inspired by the Lake Point Tower, built in 1968 in Chicago by Mies van der Rohe.

Lake Point Tower, Mies van der Rohe, Chicago

The reinforced concrete structure of the Burj Khalifa also has a trefoil shape in plan, each of the petals of which is symmetrically grouped around a central core that turns into a spire. From the base to the top, each of the three elements narrows with ledges in a spiral. There are 9 such ledges on each petal. This structure of the elements makes it possible to give greater stability to the skyscraper. The powerful stalactite cutting through the sky is striking in its scale, personifying the wealth and ambitions of the young country that is gaining strength.

View from the Burj Khalifa observation deck

Over the last decade, a new area of ​​high-rise buildings has been built on the shores of the Persian Gulf - Dubai Marina. Built around an artificial creek, the clusters of skyscrapers are mostly residential apartments and hotels. As a rule, the plan of such a structure goes back to the plan of the World Trade Center in New York, where the space of the building was grouped around the central core of communications.
You won’t see any innovative design solutions here, but each building has its own individuality: somewhere you can notice an interesting shape of the body of a skyscraper, such as the Infinity Tower, or the designers decided to highlight their building with color (Marina Crown Hotel). However, Dubai Marina is also a neighborhood built for foreigners, where local natives can only be found in restaurants on the waterfront of the artificial creek.

Dubai Marina

Dubai Marina. Infinity Tower

The entire architecture of Dubai seems to exist in spite of the climate, natural terrain, environment and culture of the local population. The city - a creation of human hands and scientific developments - extensively encroaches on the bay and desert sands, creating its own artificial environment.
Reminiscent of the utopian projects of the era of modernism, Dubai is becoming a kind of city of a bright future, where people will be able to curb the natural elements with the help of technological progress and finally create for themselves an urban paradise on Earth. A paradise where all the best, the most luxurious and the largest belongs to the local people and is their pride, a paradise that attracts crowds of tourists hungry for spectacles and expatriates who want a comfortable life and well-paid work.

Picture - background in HTML

ARCHITECTURE OF ABU DHABI. SHEIKH ZAYED MOSQUE

The architecture of Abu Dhabi has many modern, expensive, high-tech buildings, but in the construction of its main shrine - the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, the United Arab Emirates has outdone itself.

The founder of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed, wanting to perpetuate the achievements of his people and show the world the uniqueness of his country and culture, was the initiator of the construction of the Grand Mosque. The large-scale project was conceived by the sheikh in the late 1980s, but too much time was spent on preparatory work and reconciling various differences.

Sheikh Zayed wanted to create a certain structure, design, device that could unite the cultural diversity of the Islamic world, historical and modern values ​​of architecture and art.

Sheikh Zayed's vision of the mosque as a monumental architectural masterpiece meant that the building would have historical significance for the entire Gulf region, so the government, represented by the Sheikh, was the main stakeholder and main investor.

After a long competition for the best mosque project, from the moment the idea arose until 1989-1996, a winner was appointed, who was the well-known Syrian architect Yousef Abdelku (ARCHITECT: YUSEF ABDELKI, HALCROW). In 1990, construction of the complex began, the main manager of which was the well-known British company Halcrow in the UAE.
The mosque, located between the Mussafah and Makta bridges, is clearly visible at the entrance to the capital of the United Arab Emirates, as if an oriental fairy tale is growing from the sultry sands of the Rub al-Khali desert. Construction of the mosque was finally completed in 2009, although the official opening took place during the holy month of Ramadan 2007. A year later, the country's Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that entrance to the mosque would be open not only to Muslims, but also to representatives of other faiths.

The architecture of the mosque shows the influence of Persian, Moorish and Indian architecture of the Mughal period. The mosque's architecture was directly influenced by the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore (Pakistan) and the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca (Morocco).

The appearance of the dome and the layout of the mosque are inspired by the Badshahi and are imbued with the spirit of Persian, Mughal and Moorish design. The arches of the mosque are made in a typical Moorish style, and the minarets are in classical Arabic.

White is the main color in the architecture of the mosque, and it is not accidental, as it is a symbol of purity and reflects the uniqueness and beauty of Islamic architecture.
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is one of the ten largest mosques in the world and is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates, covering an area of ​​22 thousand square meters. meters.
The mosque has 82 domes of different sizes in the traditional Moroccan style, covered with white marble mosaics. The main dome of the Grand Mask is the largest of its kind, according to statistics from the Turkish Research Center for Islamic History and Culture.

Slender minarets on four sides of the mosque, which were created using marble from the quarries of Macedonia, near the ancient city of Stiber. grow out of a powerful portal. The same marble was used to create Roman copies of Greek sculptures and to reconstruct Diocletian's palace in Croatian Split.

The courtyard of the mosque, the entire space of which is covered with a marble pattern, is the largest in the world in size and the most beautiful in terms of the uniqueness of its mosaics and inlay work.

Jonathan Speirs, the architect who created the mosque's unique lighting system based on the Islamic religious calendar of the lunar cycle, where the moon became the inspiration and unifying element of the design, said:
“... We wanted to show that just as the Moon affects the ebb and flow of the tides, it also affects the building of the mosque. The idea was to create lighting in which the building would glow with a sparkling white light, like a full moon, but with the effect of clouds slowly floating towards Mecca... ".

The poetry of the mosque is based on the image of the full moon, along whose face bluish-gray clouds float. The lighting system changes the appearance of the building in accordance with the changes in the lunar cycle, slowly flowing around the minarets and domes. The change in color of the mosque occurs gradually, increasing every two nights until the moon bathed in cold white light turns one evening into a deep, mysterious and majestic blue.

Carpet: The floor of the main prayer hall is covered with the world's largest hand-woven Persian carpet, designed by Iranian artist Ali Khaliji.
The carpet was woven in Iran and 1,200 artisans worked on its production for 2 years. 35 tons of wool and 12 tons of cotton were used in the work.

Chandeliers: Seven huge chandeliers, brought from Germany, Austria and glass factories in Italy, hang from the domes almost to the floor. The largest of these chandeliers has a diameter of 10 m and a weight of approximately 9 tons. It is suspended from the main dome of the mosque and is considered the largest in the world.

Materials: The variety of colors and quality of marble, gems and other natural building materials was achieved by delivery from various countries: Italy, Germany, Morocco, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Iran, China, Great Britain, New Zealand, Greece and the UAE.

Objects of art: The mosque houses a rich library, which houses a collection of books and publications on a number of Islamic disciplines: sciences, art,
civilization, calligraphy, a collection of coins and some rare publications, which are more than 200 years old. This literature reflects the diversity of the Islamic world, and the collection also includes material in other languages, including Arabic, English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Korean.

Sheikh Zayed was buried on the territory of the mosque, in a separate small mausoleum.
Visiting conditions: Visitors must wear modest, loose-fitting clothing with long sleeves, long skirts and trousers; women must have a scarf to cover their heads (provided at the entrance). Shoes must be removed before entering.

Visitors will be asked to stay only in permitted areas of the mosque, not to touch the Koran and other architectural elements inside the prayer hall, and smoking and eating are prohibited.
Cost of visit: free
Opening hours (tourist visits):
Saturday-Thursday: 09:00-11:30, 13:30-15:30, 16:30-18:00, 18:45-19:30, 20:30-21:45
On Friday the mosque is closed to tourists.
Friday: 16:30-18:00, 18:45-19:30, 20:30-21:45
Zayed Mosque website: http://www.szgmc.ae/

Contemporary architecture