Abu Dhabi’s iconic Musalla at Al Hosn wins prestigious A+ Architizer Architectural Award

Abu Dhabi’s iconic Musalla (Mosque) at Al Hosn site has bagged the first prize at the prestigious international architecture A+ Architizer Award in the Internal Design and Creative Ceilings category.

The Architizer A+ Award, which focuses on promoting and celebrating the year’s best architecture, is the world’s largest architectural awards programme, featuring thousands of contestants every year and attracting more than 400 million visitors to its website, a Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) release said. 

The winners for the 2020 edition were selected by a panel of expert judges and rated on parameters that included harnessing cutting-edge approaches, materials and technologies to build safer, cleaner and more resilient spaces for generations to come.

The Musalla project, developed by DCT Abu Dhabi, has won the top spot in the cultural category, ahead of shortlisted competitors from the US, Portugal and China.

The Musalla constitutes an important element within the new cultural landscape that is part of the comprehensive revitalisation master plan for the heritage site surrounding the Al Hosn area. The prayer hall consists of a series of small, interconnected buildings that form a cave-like structure pushed halfway into the park-scape’s water feature.

It was the interior design, however, that caught the A+ judges’ eyes, with its suspended ceiling with circular openings punctuating the otherwise closed spaces as skylights. Combined with pendant lights, they appear as abstract star formations that evoke associations to the region’s heritage of stargazing for navigation.

The concrete ceilings of the entrance hall and ablution spaces are contrasted in the prayer halls by wooden formations with copper-clad insides, which create endless reflections of light linking the ceiling detail back into the overall scheme of the project, much like a fractal.

The Award’s mission is to nurture the appreciation of meaningful architecture in the world and to champion products that are integral to bringing inspiring buildings to life.

The Musalla, designed by architecture firm Cebra, provides soothing, secluded oases for prayers without visual disturbances.

“The Musalla at Al Hosn site has already received global recognition for its creative design, and this latest award... further validates DCT Abu Dhabi’s commitment to excellence in our initiatives,” Saood Al Hosani, acting undersecretary of DCT Abu Dhabi, said. “Al Hosn is a physical manifestation of the emirate’s heritage and its link to the past. The Musalla, however, represents a wonderful symbol of the emirate’s continuous cultural growth, and DCT Abu Dhabi’s commitment to both preserving the past while looking to the future.”

Earlier, the Musalla also won first prize in the category of Completed Building – Religion at the World Architecture Festival 2019, held in Amsterdam last December.

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