spine Mosque | COVER STORY
Oliver Ephgrave visits the UAE’s first contemporary mosque on Palm Jumeirah
COVER STORY | spine Mosque
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ocated next to the tunnel for the guargantuan Atlantis hotel, the Spine Mosque on Palm Jumeirah is the polar opposite of Dubai’s famous leisure resort. Rather than mimicking Atlantis’ overwhelming exuberance, Jordanbased firm Yaghmour Architects has designed a building that exudes simplicity, elegance and calm. Indeed the clean-lined cubist form represents the first contemporary mosque in the UAE, a far cry from the traditionalist designs of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi and Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai. Standing outside the entrance, Raed Yaghmour, managing director, explains how the project came about. “We were asked by Nakheel to develop an iconic mosque on Palm Jumeirah. It was the first mosque built by Nakheel. It’s a different concept for mosques as it is modern. We thought outside of the box.” Raed adds that the benefactor was Dawalet Siddik, who honoured her father Abdulrahman. “The official name is Abdulrahman Siddik Mosque, although we sometimes refer to it as the Spine Mosque. Nakheel shared the burden with the benefactor by providing the land and half the cost of the mosque. The total budget was AED22m, excluding the land cost, and it took around two years to construct.” Farouk Yaghmour, principal in charge, who personally oversaw the design development of the building, remarks: TOTAL budget “Nakheel called us of the SPINE and said there was a do a different approach MOSQUE limited competition to and transform the design the Spine Mosque typology.” but we didn’t know much. He continues: “The Spine We have previous mosque experiMosque was one of the first chances ence in Jordan but mosques are not to go for a different approach. We necessarily our speciality. In the wanted to use bold, contemporary beginning we started with traditional materials and we were very careful designs. With this project we tried to in our selection of materials and how
AED22M
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they were put together. The rough wall contrasts with the glass.” The Spine Mosque was won after Yaghmour worked with Nakheel in 2008 on an unrealised mosque in Port Rashid. “Our first mosque design for Nakheel went to the extreme of contemporary,” adds Farouk. “We designed different alternatives with a
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The mosque features a clean and simple design.
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