Belief in Design
The Abrahamic Family House employs quiet symbolism.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUKSANA HUSSAIN
Individual, yet related. Three white cubes rise above the palm trees of Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. The Abrahamic Family House is an interfaith centre celebrating the three religions—Islam, Judaism and Christianity—that worship the God of Abraham. As such, it ensconces a mosque, a synagogue and a church—the three cubes—in a secular pavilion, a space open to dialogue and contemplation.
British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye’s firm, Adjaye Associates, designed the 6,500-square- metre complex. The three buildings, each 30 metres tall, wide and deep, are encased in unique pillars that provide midday shade to their almost transparent cores. They sit at different angles, as equals, atop a square garden plinth. The design of each subtly incorporates symbols of the religion it represents. The Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb Mosque faces Mecca. Seven parabolic arches, echoing the importance of the number seven in Islam, decorate each side. Rather than a dome, nine arches on the inner building, covered with lace-like, operable mashrabiya, curve into a vaulted ceiling.
The V-shaped columns of the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue evoke palm fronds on Jewish sukkahs. The columns touch the roof on each side at eight points—a number representing God above—and seven points on the ground—a number representing man. The building faces Jerusalem. St. Francis Church is surrounded by straight pillars. Inside, a forest of timber battens is suspended from the ceiling, to symbolise a “shower of ecstatic redemption,” Adjaye Associates says. The church’s altar faces the east and the rising sun, with light as a symbol of divinity in Christianity. The purity of their lines and the soaring dimensions allows these otherwise humble buildings of concrete, Omani marble and wood to create a sense of awe.
We asked photographer Ruksana Hussain to shoot the complex for us. Go online, to hadara magazine.com, to see her beautiful photo essay.—Catherine Bolgar
