a spiritual and national icon is

emerging from what was once a

featureless desert an immense project

involving thousands of workers toiling

in searing temperatures for more than 12

years this was the grand vision that's

becoming a reality Abu Dhabi's Sheikh

Zayed Al Nahyan Grand Mosque building

the biggest mosque in the region

required an enormous multinational

undertaking the final result is intended

to be spectacular

not only in sheer size but also in its

elegant beauty because this mega

structure is an artistic statement on a

massive scale the world's largest

chandelier will be the crowning glory of

the main prayer hall while the world's

largest carpet is being assembled from

Iran this will be one of the largest

projects of its kind anywhere in the

world covered from end to end in the

purest white marble

the biggest mosque dome in the world is

the project centerpiece a global quest

to find the purest white marble and the

very best marble craftsmen in the world

extends to Italy Macedonia and even

China hundreds of artisans cutting and

shaping tens of thousands of intricate

pieces to assemble a gigantic jigsaw

puzzle of monumental marble it's a

massive and complex international effort

even british belgium indians bangladesh

turkish filipinos perhaps 220 thousand

cubic metres of concrete 30,000 tons of

reinforcement the best softwares and the

best equipment and machinery the

classical and the modern although

there's a schedule to be met the Sheikh

Zayed Grand Mosque project is not so

much a race against time an attempt to

make time stand still this mega

structure that must survive for

centuries it's got to be built to last

Abu Dhabi is on the coast of the Arabian

Peninsula and border Saudi Arabia is the

largest of the seven emirates that

comprise the united arab emirates and

the most profitable abu dhabi city is on

an island and its downtown area was

already fully occupied with skyscrapers

and new construction short of

demolishing an entire city block no

space existed for the mosque site the

opposite end of the island however was

far less developed and offered the space

needed for a project of this magnitude

in preparation and nine and a half meter

high hill is built up to elevate the

mosque to physically and visually

dominate its environment construction

begins in the late 1990s in the centre

of an area that covers over 22,000

square meters poor communication between

the abu dhabi construction company and

its european contractor caused the

project to stagnate after initial work

the original company was replaced

british construction group Paltrow

international comes on board in 2002 as

structural supervisor for phase 1 of the

project the reinforced concrete shell of

the mosque phase 2 will involve the

final exterior and interior design

samy Alcazar's heads up the Halcro team

initially responsible for the completion

of phase one great consideration was

given to the durability and this is the

reason for this is the aggressive

environment in which this building is

being built aggressive environment

doesn't just refer to the temperature

it's the a salinity that's the real

danger

the problem with salt in the air is that

it it combines with the moisture in the

air and chlorides are produced and

chlorides attack the reinforcement

within the concrete so we try and

achieve a concrete with it as lower

permeability and porosity as possible

this is the steel that's meant to last

for centuries the reinforcement that

provides the strength of the core of the

foundation piles test bores went down

first through sand then mud then gypsum

until at a depth of 27 meters solid mud

stone was found to support the piles

meant to carry the enormous weight of

the mosque its sedimentary rock

comprised primarily of clay the location

of a solid foundation solved one problem

but at this depth a second challenge

presented itself all the piles are

effectively sitting in the groundwater

and the groundwater is very highly

silane because it's so close to the city

this salt water might eventually seep

into the concrete attack and corrode the

steel reinforcement and critically

weaken the entire underpinning of the

structure after intensive testing a

corrosion inhibitor is included in the

concrete design to protect the steel in

those piles we've introduced

polypropylene fibers and this with the

increased in cover to protect the

reinforcement will reduce the amount of

surface cracking in the pile and there

are more than 6,000 of these piles

holding up the structure protected and

strengthened by tiny plastic fibers to

extend their lifetime it's the air and

ground salinity that will dictate the

length of the mosques life and the steel

reinforced concrete structures are

relatively new the future is unknown

territory only time will tell

if the engineers have got it right

the Phase one construction period takes

seven years concluding with the Assembly

of the biggest dome of any mosque in the

world nearly 70 meters tall

a massive ring beam of steel reinforced

concrete more than 35 meters in diameter

supports the dome which is comprised of

72 precast concrete segments as each

level is lifted and positioned the

recesses between the segments are filled

with concrete to stitch them together

and the dome is entirely self-supporting

once all three levels are in place the

dome is capped with a final pour of

concrete strongly steel reinforced

because this is the point from which the

mosque central chandelier will hang all

12 tons of it the main dome and the two

secondary domes are constructed to be

freestanding and separate from the main

prayer hall below because earthquake

engineering has been incorporated into

their design a 3 to 10 centimeter gap

separates the domes from the main prayer

hall to allow the domes on their huge

supporting columns to move independently

avoiding stress points that could weaken

the structure in a quake the Sheikh

Zayed Grand Mosque is as near as

possible to being earthquake proof with

phase one completed the concrete shell

of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque sits

silent and empty awaiting the exterior

and interior decoration that will imbue

the mega mosque with a unique identity

phase two of the Sheikh Zayed Grand

Mosque project will involve it being

clad inside and out with white marble

and the installation of the largest

chandelier and carpet in the world the

column the arch and the dome have been

described as the Trinity of Islamic

architecture and although the mosque

remains faithful to predominately

Moroccan based traditional and geometric

design its contours are more

free-flowing and reflect a broader

fusion of influences the design includes

407 metre tall minarets 82 domes of

seven different sizes 96 columns inside

the main prayer hall and 1096 columns

supporting the arcades two rooms joining

the prowl offer the women with the

capacity for 1500 worshippers each

kowler al sulamani is an engineering

graduate from the UAE s al iene

university first joining the project as

an engineer becoming deputy project

director then moving up to the top job

of project director as a woman working

on construction fields does not easy

everybody put in his eyes and the Suraj

X as government as people's as foreigner

she meets with her key associates to

discuss keeping the project on schedule

the late 2007 deadline for the

completion of the mosque structure must

be met without cutting corners or

compromising the project's integrity the

objective is to give abu dhabi a

national icon that will last for

centuries so a quick fix to meet the

deadline is out of the question

although speeds and necessity completion

can't be achieved at the expense of

quality and that won't be easy

Hill International Samia Oh her mood is

now under pressure and consults with his

engineers about how to achieve the 2007

deadline trenches need to be dug and

cables laid to fully access the power

supply beneath the mosque long

underground tunnels await electric

cables much still needs to be done and

time is not on the engineer's side

building a monument in marble doesn't

come cheaply the Sheikh Zayed Grand

Mosque has an estimated budget of two

and a half billion dirham around 700

million u.s. dollars just fifty years

ago

Abu Dhabi could not have afforded such

extravagance

at that time Abu Dhabi had a population

of 46,000 people had no infrastructure

and apparently no future

a collection of tents huts and crude

buildings it appeared destined to remain

an impoverished desert community on the

coast of the Persian Gulf

neither self-sufficient not profitably

productive it had relied primarily upon

its pearl and fishing industries for its

livelihood but all this was soon to

change when it became the financial

linchpin of the United Arab Emirates

massive oil deposits eventually made the

emirate of Abu Dhabi the key component

of one of the richest nations on earth

the United Arab Emirates

although the emirate of Abu Dhabi is

only slightly smaller than Scotland and

mostly arid in inhospitable desert the

source of its wealth lies elsewhere off

its coastline just over the horizon in

the Persian Gulf it pumps 89 percent of

all the United Arab Emirates oil and

generate an annual income of a hundred

and eighty seven billion US dollars Abu

Dhabi city grew rapidly to become a

high-rise modern metropolis and the

population of the emirate swelled to

over two million not due to a prodigious

birthrate but an influx of foreign

workers more than 60% of the population

are expatriates from all around the

world its success story is largely due

to one man president of the United Arab

Emirates for 33 years Sheikh Zayed bin

Sultan Al Nahyan Airy leader who plotted

his nation's path towards prosperity and

growth the UAE now boasts the largest

number of construction tower cranes in

the world

the emirate of Abu Dhabi has more than

2,200 mosques but Sheikh Zayed had

wished for one more a masterpiece that

would become the jewel in the crown of

Abu Dhabi he had a vision for creating a

mosque with various architectural detail

from all over the Arab world and his

vision was to create a mosque for all

Muslims from whatever countries within

the Islamic world Sheikh Zayed passed

away in November 2004 his son Sheikh

Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

was elected president of the United Arab

Emirates the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

is being constructed under extremely

inhospitable conditions because whereas

Abu Dhabi has oil in abundance it has

very little fresh water and relies upon

desalinating sea water although oil is

the desert Emirates lifeblood water is

also vital for its survival on the

construction site practically all

workers carry water bottles to counter

the ever-present danger of dehydration

in soaring mid summer temperatures the

danger to workers is of losing water

faster than its being replaced

in this region heat is one of the main

problems that we have table hot yes

extremely hot and really you can fry

eggs on-site sweet in all time you want

to take out clothes really from your

from your body you know dehydration is

the major problem

there are many mainly laborers who

suffer dehydration problems the human

body can go into severe shock when it

lacks water and unless quick action is

taken the consequences can be fatal

midsummer temperatures can go up to

around 48 degrees centigrade but with

the humidity sometimes 100 or 100 plus

percent the the conditions are very

difficult to work in over the last two

years the government have imposed a

restriction of working during the

hottest times of the day between 12:00

and 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon

normally we don't cast concrete in the

ambient temperature above 38 degrees

centigrade so in the hottest months of

the summer we can only cast at night

where the temperatures are below that

this has an effect on the curing the

hydration of the concrete during the

curing period just how critical is this

concrete pouring temperature and does it

mean that if it's incorrect the

structure will eventually fail I would

never say the concrete would fail you

may not achieve their strengths that you

want under the most extreme conditions

this is what might happen if sufficient

strength is not achieved rigorous

pressure tests are undertaken to ensure

that the concrete design mix can stand

the strain

groundwater salinity and soaring summer

temperatures could be expected however a

desert downpour comes as a complete

surprise and brings all work to a

standstill the roads surrounding the

site become Quagmire's all the vehicles

stuck and all the equipment stopped an

even work will stop as well if it was

really heavy rain we cannot expect rain

although sandstorms are only occasional

strong wind conditions of frequent

slowing down work but never quite

stopping it but high winds present

another more serious problem that of

eroding or blowing away the nine and a

half meter high embankment the Moss

stands on to stop this happening the

entire Hills surrounding the mosque is

swathe in heavy green plastic sheeting

firmly tethered down to keep the hill

intact when the completed landscaping is

finally in place sand erosion will cease

to be a problem early in 2007 all work

was stopped and the workers were sent

home not because of rain or construction

problems but because of visitors royal

visitors Prince Charles and the Duchess

of Cornwall toured the site

for security reasons the workers were

absent but the press were not at the

project speak 2500 workers labor on site

a great many of them are Muslims with

the obligation to pray five times a day

this has been factored into the

construction schedule with on-site

mosques for religious devotions safety

officer who Madame Soleil tours the vast

site every workday with so many workers

on site prevention of industrial

accidents has high priority

he's in the world biggest mosque dome

and decorative paneling has already been

installed around its inner parameter

shortly the top of the huge dome itself

will receive similar treatment

sophie-anne SLA is the subcontractor

responsible for providing the internal

ceiling and dome paneling even though we

used high technology even though we use

the IT that the best software's and the

best equipment and machinery we had to

go back to the basics to the human

artistic side the artists were the

Moroccans

the other ones who created the gypsum

designs and the positives from which the

glass reinforced trypsin was produced so

the designs and concept and the

decoration with all the creation of

Moroccan artisans it's a generation

business and they do it by hand they can

carve it they give it all the life that

you need to show in this type of carving

so we had to use these people to create

the basic carvings which were

transferred into electronic information

with the IT technology with the CAD CAM

carving machines and to end up with big

production of these highly artistic art

items yet retaining the basic hand

artistic part

on the factory floor a high-strength

gypsum a mineral mix is combined with

tiny slithers of fiberglass and sprayed

on one of the thousands of molds when

set it is both strong and relatively

lightweight we had to do a 3d simulation

to finalize all the geometry because

these units cannot be adjusted they are

not aimed to be adjusted on-site they

have to fit accurately and they do not

only fit in terms of geometry so if you

have two pieces that you like them to

fit you have to ensure that their sides

fit side to side left right up down

bottom and not only that you have all

the carvings that have different debt

and those carvings should match the

carving of the adjacent panels so you

don't have the luxury to to adjust

anything on side once there they have to

be correct

it's over 12100 pens dominating the

factory floor is a vast curved wooden

cradle in which pre-assembly of dozens

of panels is taking place scores of

these heavy preassembled sections are

required and they'll be secured overhead

in the main prowl I would say that the

heaviest ones were in the range of 700

to 800 kilograms they are quite heavy as

a decorative unit maybe the weight of

your car but that you are hanging on to

a dome or on the ceiling in phase 2 the

grey austere concrete vanishes to be

shaved in dazzling and decorative white

few projects have used as much marble as

the Sheikh Zayed mosque which was

conceived to have the whitest marble

ever found like another wonder of the

world the taj mahal marble has been a

key feature of Islamic structures valued

for its beauty strength and resistance

to fire and erosion phase 2 of

construction involves the local company

6co coordinating and supervising the

work of 38 international contractors you

are speaking about 120,000 square metre

of marble outside Iran which is nearly

Montagnes of marble which had to be

open and treated to get the extra white

marble we are hitting here in total both

outside and inside nearly a hundred and

twenty thousand square meters of marble

is required including a considerable

amount of decorative and carved works

but where to find the worlds white as

marble the search would take them around

the world building the Sheikh Zayed

mosque requires a search for the purest

white marble in the world particularly

for the prayer hall in Syria this is

where Italy now contributes its

expertise Milan in northern Italy is a

city long renowned for being on the

cutting edge of innovative design

it's the home of Fantini Maserati a

long-established expert in the business

of manipulating marble when approached

to tackle the task of providing and

crafting pure white marble on the

mammoth scale that the project required

the company contacted Lorenzo Carmellini

and an interior design firm a company

with a close association with Gianni

Versace on hotel and boutique projects

although a schedule had to be met to

create a timeless masterpiece in marble

would obviously require time spaten were

one of the only architects who could

transfer Sheikh Sultan's ideas and

visions into reality Sheikh Sultan was

very interested in the floral concept of

the mosque the image that the client and

fan had in mind it was the mosque of the

flowers and Spartan were very good

transposing that idea into samples

drawings and designs

the material we suggested for the

realization of physical realization of

the world was the model he wants

something very very wide very important

and we had to find a very rare kind of

white marble and it has been taken from

an Italian quarry which is producing

maybe the most beautiful and pure white

from all over the world marble that's

white and crystalline as the snow found

in the val vanastra alps in northern

italy at the Aqua bianca quarry this

cold white marble was exactly what

Lorenzo wanted Lassa marble

it's found high among the snow-capped

mountain peaks and comes from inside a

deep gallery quarry in near zero

temperatures and often loosened with

explosive charges the marble is cut into

huge slabs on the spot it originates

from limestone under intense heat and

pressure it underwent a process of

recrystallization

after being quarried and cut it's taken

down to the town of Lhasa in the valley

below to await shipment to Abu Dhabi

not only massive marble but micro marble

is an integral part of Abu Dhabi Sheikh

Zayed Grand Mosque hundreds of thousands

of marble chips comprise the flower

patterns on the main prayer hall walls

all hand-cut in Italy a second team of

Italian artisans assemble the pieces

guided by paper patterns to precisely

match the floral features envisioned by

the designers the mosaics are

handcrafted in exactly the same way that

they've been for centuries and they are

designed to last for centuries this is

where the mosaic process begins and this

is where it ends nearly 4,700 kilometres

away
in Abu Dhabi

we wanted yes to give a new modern

impact but of course there had to be a

sort of respect and attention to the

traditional the same kind of decoration

and finishing etcetera a modern version

of traditional way to do the declaring

of the walls marble mosaics glass are

material they have been always used in

the history of all those buildings

dozens of artisans work in sheds on the

site crafting semi-precious stones to be

inlaid into marble tiles everything is

done by hand and everything is designed

to fit perfectly no computer models no

production line assembly and quality not

speed is the key note the inlaid marble

slabs are polished and ready to be

mounted on the 1096 columns along the

arcades that surround the central area

in total more than 20,000 panels are

required the mosques 17400 square metre

central area had to be paved with marble

as well and not just plain white marble

the floral concept had to be followed

through and the first design concept of

total coverage evolved into a more

subtle approach

the musk of the flower isn't meant to be

overly ostentatious so the floral design

becomes a perimeter feature swirling

around the edge of the central area of

dazzling white marble the complex web of

steel scaffolding is beginning to come

down in the main prayer hall and the

interior of the main dome is at last

revealed fully paneled and awaiting the

arrival of the world's biggest

chandelier

Thomas Faust aghh is in charge of the

chandeliers construction which is being

manufactured and assembled in his Munich

Factory in southern Germany however his

designers and engineers aren't working

on just a single central chandelier

they are extremely large ten meters

diameter by 15 meters height that is

equal to a five to six story building

there are two secondary chandeliers with

a diameter of eight meters and a similar

height there are another four smaller

ones but small is not small they are

four and a half meters and three high

grade but in comparison small so the

whole lot is seven chandeliers seven

principal chandeliers for the seven

principal terms of the mosque

the main chandelier has a staircase

within it to allow technicians to enter

and carry out checks on its LED lighting

system this system was chosen because of

its long life which keeps maintenance to

an absolute minimum

the last chandeliers weighed about 12

tons they are made of stainless steel

and a gold-plated brass sheets and the

crystals are also quite unique because

they are fixed on two glass panels and

this is also a new technology which was

not used in such a fixture before the

Austrian company Swarovski has been

subcontracted to supply the crystal do

not ask me how many crystals were used

because I don't know but I can ask my

friends of Swarovski they should know

much better because they are going to

inversely Swarovski will be billing

Faust egg for nearly 40 million pieces

of fine crystal the chandelier is made

of the best materials available without

any epoxidation is all stainless steel

and gold-plated brass it should last for

the next thousand two thousand three

thousand or even more years because

nothing can go wrong this one will be

the new Guinness Book record chandelier

yes

and below the world's largest chandelier

will be the world's biggest carpet it's

being woven across the Persian Gulf in

Iran and designed by Iranian artists a

leak a leaky that's about 5,700 meter

square it's being waved in Iran by hand

totally by ladies a woman's who's doing

this about 1,200 women's working three

shifts to finish this carpets s consists

of nine visas one two three four five

six seven eight nine about 2.5 billion

knots in the total carpet maybe more

size it will be about 5,700 square meter

and the weight will be forty seven ton

because there's a 12-ton cotton they

using and the rest of the wool

let's up take about two years the nine

segments will be shipped to the Sheikh

Zayed Grand Mosque where a further task

is being undertaken the carpet segments

must be seamlessly woven together as

they are laid in the main prayer hall

this will produce the impression of a

single piece that covers the entire area

and the Iranians have been flown in to

carry out this task fifty to sixty

people going to work for four months

it's something unique and our carpets

considered to be the biggest one in the

world the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque has

the biggest carpet in the world and the

biggest chandelier in the world but

requires a religious focal point to

complete their contribution

the Italians now provide an innovative

design for the mosques most important

feature its prayer wall featuring the 99

names of Allah to fully realize his

unique concept lorenzo Carmellini

required a special quality of marble and

for him that could only be found in one

place pietro santa on the western coast

of italy has been associated with marble

since antiquity

it's a picture postcard town popular

with tourists and many contemporary

sculptors have made it their home it's

famous past resident the legendary

Michelangelo is still remembered and

revered today

what gives the town its fame is its

close proximity to one of the world's

oldest and purest sources of white

marble here in the mountains less than

15 minutes drive away

the vast quarry of white marble is where

Michelangelo selected his material a

quarry that provided much of the marble

that adorned ancient Rome at the peak of

its empire and the same quarry that

today is supplying the marble for the

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

the prayer wall is being assembled from

local white Bianco P marble and it's

been chosen from this particular

locality because its color is subtly

different to that of the main prowl

material from Lhasa the intention is to

have the distinctive prayer hall wall

stand out from its surroundings the

Lasser marble is cold white and the

Pietrus santa marble has a warmer milky

color

in another factory further individual

pieces are being cut and crafted and

within weeks everything will be shipped

to Abu Dhabi for reassembly creating a

monument in marble requires a lot of

stone and the quarry's in Macedonia

eventually provide an affordable

solution

there was a search around the world for

light marble to try and source the

purest white marble in the volumes that

were required for this project the

marble from Macedonia that's to encircle

the huge supporting columns in the main

prayer is cut into thick slabs and

shipped to dong-gwon

in southern China this industrial city

is one of the many worldwide locations

contributing expertise to the project

and kowler al suleimani and her advisers

regularly visit all of them to check on

product quality and progress their

supplier is part of one of the biggest

marble and granite working conglomerates

in the whole of China

the project directors focus is the

marble being delivered here from

Macedonia hundreds of interlocking

segments are being meticulously carved

polished and inlaid the segments will

cover the massive columns supporting the

three main domes of the mosque but time

and quality is critical ninety-six

column four meter height 2 meter

diameter to be done in three months and

these are not just column they are

engraved by hand with natural

mother-of-pearl so the thickness of the

marble had to be enough to allow us to

carve them without having this problem

of cracks not all the marble supplied

from Macedonia is living up to

expectations too much of it has my nude

floors and is cracking the project

director is there to put the schedule

back on track but can replacement marble

be delivered from Macedonia fast enough

the exterior marble cladding for the 82

domes of the mosque has been completed

all that remains is for them to be

capped with decorative pinnacles and

those for the main domes are of

considerable size they've been

fabricated from advanced composite

material and their surface is covered

with golden glass mosaic tiles their

placement requires personal care and

attention

so members of a specialist Malaysian

team strapped into safety harnesses ride

the pinnacles aloft to secure them in

place

capping the three main domes

is the most dizzying and delicate

operation of all time to complete the

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is running out

after 12 years will the mega must be

ready for its grand opening

the opening of the Sheikh Zayed Grand

Mosque is now just days away all 5,700

square meters of the world's biggest

carpet in the main prayer hall have been

vacuumed clean the huge doors of the

main prayer hall are closed for the air

conditioning system to be fired up below

ground cool air is pushed through a long

maze of massive dogs from the air

conditioning plants outside landscaping

is put into place that will eventually

encircle the mosque and as shadows

lengthen the work of cleaning and

polishing in the central area goes on

long into the night

the deadline has been met with little

time to spare

and evening sees the main trials

interior mallow into a warm ethereal

beauty this is when the world's biggest

chandelier comes into its own glittering

with Swarovski crystals

it should last easily a thousand years

and more

it is a huge project is considered the

third largest mosque in the world

non-muslims aren't usually allowed into

mosques in Abu Dhabi

however the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is

an exception

let's have a different element from

different part of Islamic world and from

our local traditions a place for all

Muslim from different war to come to

visit not just the Muslim everybody

it's incredible to see the quality

achieved and and the time the deadline

was met it's good to be here and to see

people enjoying the visit we have a

special scenarios for Lighting's we have

a special lighting for occasion we have

a special lighting for morning time and

we have a special lighting for nights

the mosque is surrounded by 22 towers

each of them fitted with up to a dozen

special effect floodlights the exterior

lighting design recognizes the

connection between the lunar cycle and

the Islamic calendar

as the moon waxes and wanes the shade of

the right blue-white light varies so in

other words the whole surfaces of the

building become anemic of the room

in order to add some dynamic lighting

we've decided to add some animations to

these intelligent luminaires to add

cloud shades crossing the building

towards Mecca direction suggesting more

spiritual clarity

you

the late shake sides vision is designed

to become the centerpiece of Abu Dhabi's

heritage a mega structure of enduring

beauty

you