The Sharjah Mosque
Light Concept
The Sharjah Mosque
Light Concept
Sharjah Mosque is the second biggest mosque in United Arab Emirates and a divine and spiritual architectural icon. The goal of Light Concept was for its lighting design to preserve and accentuate the building’s architectural and religious values.
Sharjah Mosque is the second biggest mosque in United Arab Emirates and a divine and spiritual architectural icon. The goal of Light Concept was for its lighting design to preserve and accentuate the building’s architectural and religious values.
The practice also wanted the illumination to help create a divine and inviting atmosphere for visitors.
The results are spectacular. The considered scheme, both internally and externally, achieves all its objectives, and has been acclaimed by both government and visitors alike.
The lighting makes a strong connection between the outdoors and indoors of the mosque, helping people to connect with the area whether they are visitors or attending prayers.
The lighting is concentrated on defining the most impressive architectural elements within the mosque, and the intensity is very controlled.
Light and shadow are carefully balanced while different colour temperatures between 2500K to 3000K are used to add depth and definition, especially on the façades.
An advanced lighting control system, with a range of different scenes, is used for indoor, façade and landscape lighting.
It’s common for visitors to the mosque to take photographs which they later frame as paintings for their homes, and the lighting is designed to assist in this process by articulating the striking architecture as an artwork.
The main challenge that required ingenuity and innovative thinking was the project's religious values and the importance of the client himself which is the ruler of the Sharjah Emirate.
Another vital challenge in the project was the client’s strict requirement of prohibiting any bulky or protuberant lighting fixtures.
The lighting fittings were required to be harmoniously incorporated into the building both internally and externally so Light Concept specified discrete but powerful LED luminaires.
All lighting fittings used are LED with highest efficiency possible in order to save energy.
The practice minimised any lighting pollution and achieved a maximum power density of just 0.08W per square meter is a big achievement.
Lighting design team: Tanas Khoury, Francis De Guzman, Rommel Flores, Marian Erandio
Lighting suppliers: Linealight, iGuzzini, Heper, Filix Lighting
Photography: Khacho Demergiana