Abrahamic Family House

Overview

Comprising

three religious spaces in one location, Abrahamic Family House is a first of its kind design space in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island.

Located in Saadiyat Island’s cultural district, Abrahamic Family House is a collection of three religious spaces: a mosque, a church, and a synagogue— all of which will sit upon a fourth secular space consisting of a Forum and raised garden. Designed by Adjaye Associates, the unique space will serve as a community for interfaith dialogue and exchange, nurturing the values of peaceful co-existence and acceptance among different beliefs, nationalities, and cultures. Within each of the houses of worship, visitors can observe religious services, listen to holy scripture, and experience sacred rituals.

Overview

Welcome Center View

Mosque

Credit Dror Baldinger

The form is translated from the three faiths, carefully using the lens to define what is similar, as opposed to what is different. Through the power of these revelations, the design emerges as powerful plutonic forms with a clear geometry: three cubes sitting on a plinth. The narrative of each religion unfolds through various scales—from structure to detail—and emerges through the elements of creation—water and light. Each chamber sits within a courtyard with triangular water features designed to cool the body. Upon entering each house of worship, light bathes visitors while hot air is pulled from the perimeter towards the adorned ceilings, tempering the interior. Wrapped in an offwhite concrete that deflects the heat of the sun and references the sand and mountains of the Emirates, each form is oriented towards religious references whilst sitting within a unifying garden.

The Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque is oriented towards Mecca. Light filters through the delicate GRP latticework of the mashrabiya screens, which circulate air while maintaining privacy. Four seamless, monolithic columns represent the Islamic

Mosque

Credit

Mosque

Credit: Dror Baldinger screen that wraps the Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque’s exterior.

Mosque

Credit Dror Baldinger

Within the Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque, four monolithic columns create nine seamless, monumental vaults.

Mosque

Credit: Arwa Alhati notions of stability, order, and fullness and create a vaulting space that orients the visitors towards the mihrab. The only fully opaque wall billows to make room for the simplistic stone mihrab, which is bathed in the patterned light from the screens.

At the Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque, light filters into interiors through the structure’s archways and mashrabiya walls, which are modern translations of traditional Islamic architectural forms.

Mosque

Credit Dror Baldinger

Light filters through mashrabiya screens onto seamless colonnades in the Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque and illuminates the mihrab.

Mosque

Credit Arwa Alhati

The façade of Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque features seven elongated arches on each side and mashrabiya walls of delicate latticework.

I Learning Centre

Along two corners of the courtyard are spaces for ablution, screened by bronze gates that formally echo the seven arches that break up each façade of the exterior form. Mediating between the elements and privacy, an inverted dome and pyramid ceiling within a square form signifies the female and male ablution.

St. Francis Church is oriented towards the rising sun in the East, along with a forest of columns that composes the form to allow light to enter from the exterior. From the courtyard, two uneven columns suspend above the entrance symbolizing the testing of faith. A warm wooden portal guides you into the congregation space where Adjaye Associates designed oak pews face towards the altar. Inspired by the altar of St Peter’s Basilica, a canopy of linear timber elements cascades down from the ceiling in a “shower of ecstatic redemption.” Marble altar, ambo, and tabernacle, as well as an oak credence table and three chairs sit on the sanctuary below the crucifix—a humanoid form with no indication of race or creed.

A baptistry is located beside the church, denoted by a conical form that emerges above the courtyard walls with scattered small windows of light emitting for the interior. Inside, an octagonal room houses a baptismal font, which emerges from the ground in a rough-cut marble form.

The Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue is oriented towards Jerusalem. A series of three V-shaped columns amass to create a screen between the interior and exterior, referencing the overlapping layers of palm fronds on the sukkah—a structure used during Sukkot, the Jewish festival of shelter. A bronze mesh tent—symbolizing the original tabernacle— cascades from a skylight in the ceiling and drapes over the congregation. A stone wall envelopes the base, from which the ark emerges and, along with

Adjaye Associates designed oak seating featuring the V-shaped motif, face towards the bimah.

The mikveh is located adjacent to the entrance and composed of limestone walls. A skylight punctures through a textured, monolithic ceiling, allowing light from above to enter the intimate space of the mikveh. The fourth space—not affiliated with any specific religion—will serve as a Forum for all people to come together with the collective ambition to convene spatially, through courtyards, a

Synagogue

Credit Dror Baldinger

Synagogue

Credit Dror Baldinger

The

Synagogue

Credit Dror Baldinger

The courtyard of Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue features triangular areas of landscaping and discreet entrance to the mikveh.