Mosque lights winning big

Speirs and Major Associates has picked up another award for its work at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. US trade body ESTA named ETC and Martin Professional winners of the prestigious Rock Our World Awards, weeks after the German-based Professional Lighting Designers’ Association recognised its advancement of the field of architectural lighting design. The project has also racked up the IALD Award of Merit and the IES Award of Excellence.

Designed to mimic the phases of the moon, the lighting design sees the building washed with a gradually changing colour sequence, from blue to white for the stages from new to full moon. In addition, projected ‘clouds’ move across the building from West to East, as if clearing from Mecca. More than 1,200 Martin fixtures, Erco interior lights and ETC Source Four luminaires are controlled by 21 Congo servers and 15 Unison processors.

“The project spanned seven years of work across multiple departments and international offices within ETC and in cooperation with Martin Professional to achieve Speirs and Major Associates’ design ideal,” Sarah Clausen, ETC Controls product manager, who led programming of the Congo servers on site, said. “The end result is a magnificent but subtle effect that stretches the boundaries and technologies of lighting design and is wholly deserving of these awards.”

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