Designing a full-fledged prayer hall in Abu Dhabi,
A prayer hall containing restaurants and cultural facilities within irregular shapes of “slits” and geometry was designed in Abu Dhabi,
by Danish architecture firm CEBRA.
The main fortress plan and landscaping is the name of the project, which is a new cultural park, with an area of 140,000 square meters.
Completed as part of master transformation plans to return Qasr Al Hosn to the cultural heart of Abu Dhabi,
Commissioned by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi in 2016.
CEBRA has introduced a new type of urban landscape rooted locally,
Inspired by the coastal landscape of Abu Dhabi Island, the sand, mangroves and fault patterns characteristic of the salt flats.
The project draws links between today’s city center and the natural environment from which it arose.
The masterplan combines modernity with the emirate’s maritime and desert heritage in a coherent narrative that continues between the two contrasting buildings on the site.
Qasr Al Hosn is the oldest and most important building in the city.
It was originally built in 1760 as a watchtower to protect the only fresh water well on Abu Dhabi Island.
It was later extended to a palace, literally the birthplace of the modern city.
The aim of the transformation masterplan was to restore the Citadel as the cultural heart of the city with a new cultural park of 140,000 square metres.
and preservation of both the site surrounding the castle and the cultural institution of the city.
Designing a full-fledged prayer hall in Abu Dhabi
The project combines modernity alongside the emirate’s maritime and desert heritage.
By presenting a new type of urban landscape rooted locally, in a coherent narrative that continues between the two contrasting buildings on the site.
Today, the site has been converted into a vibrant public park, enhancing the two historic buildings as important landmarks in the city.
At the same time, the project will add many new jobs to the Al Hosn site,
making it a source of strength for the entire city of Abu Dhabi. Restaurants,
facilities for cultural activities, eye-catching prayer hall, magnificent open landscape with water features and shaded enclave,
And spaces to relax in the sun of the Middle East.
The project emphasizes its own duality, diagonally dividing the site into two contrasting landscapes.
The first is a desert-like landscape, an open plain around the fortress of Qasr al-Hosn,
restoring the building as a freestanding landmark on the sand as it was before the rapid emergence of the modern city.
In contrast, a paved and programmed area with intensive cultivation surrounds the building of the cultural institution,
thus combining the desert landscape with the structure of the modern city grid.
Designing a full-fledged prayer hall in Abu Dhabi
The two landscapes are connected to a general urban space that emerges from the formations of “cracks” and irregular geometric shapes,
Central landscape area is defined by an organic pattern known as ‘Voronoi’.
The design expresses an architectural interpretation of the coastal landscape of Abu Dhabi Island,
with sandbars, mangroves and the distinctive cracking patterns of the salt flats.
Which links between the center of the current capital and the natural places from which it arose.
The architecture of the urban landscape intentionally descends somewhere between the building and the landscape,
with the tone of the concrete matching the color of the natural sands.
The landscape changes from horizontal to sloping roofs that gradually grow along the transitional zone,
to actual buildings for food and beverage facilities, and additional functions, culminating in a chapel hall in the northeast corner of the site.
From seated columns, roof patterns, lighting concept and building volumes, to interior floor plans, doorways and furnishings, all components were incorporated.
skillfully in the overall urban landscape topography.
It merges with the garden to be experienced as natural elements of the landscape,
and thus, the landscape emphasizes the castle and the cultural institution as the main visual anchors.
Water also forms a natural focal point in the landscape design of the fort,
both for its cultural significance as an integral element in the overall design narrative,
as a natural cooling element for the project’s microclimate, and for providing solutions to reduce water consumption indoors.
The park-scape’s central area incorporates a series of water features that stretch from south to north,
separated from the irregular geometric shapes of the distinctive sidewalks,
Like narrow streams, canals, streams and underground passages that turn into a large water feature around the prayer hall.
Designing a full-fledged prayer hall in Abu Dhabi
The project aims to create a local aesthetic garden characterized by the use of local materials and indigenous plants that tolerate sunlight,
which requires minimal irrigation, rather than designing a traditional urban garden of lush vegetation that requires extensive irrigation and maintenance in a desert climate.
The fort’s site also introduces a meaningful flow through the city by interlacing pathways through the site with adjacent functions and the broader urban fabric,
thus enhancing pedestrians and acting as a dynamo of public life.
This is supported by garden plants, which provide shade along walkways and pocket spaces.
The large overhangs created by the sloping surfaces of the landscape also form the food and beverage buildings along with the water feature,
which support a comfortable climate for outdoor activities independent of artificial air conditioning.
