The World Trade Center in Abu Dhabi, designed by Foster + Partners, is the quintessence of commercial activity: offices, housing, a hotel, a traditional souk market and a regular mall are collected on 700 thousand m2. Such a mixture of functions guarantees liveliness there around the clock, and in such an environment, the most important task of the mosque architects was to protect it from the hustle and bustle around.
For this purpose, the building is surrounded by shallow water bodies and is equipped with a small park. The rows of palm trees planted there are continued by supports outside the mosque, they seem to bring the visitor to the entrance; inside, the direction of the planning grid changes slightly: like the entire building, it is oriented towards Mecca.
The appearance of the interior is determined by slender columns, in the capitals of which there are openings in the ceilings, through which sunlight enters inside. These capitals are openwork, the pattern for them was created with the help of a computer. This is both a modern approach to the key theme of Islamic art - ornamentation, and a reference to traditional mashrabiya lattices. When viewed from above, the openings in the roof look like rows of truncated pyramids: this is an original solution - taking care of people living and working in neighboring, higher buildings, who will see the roof of the mosque from their windows.
