Mosque, Al Ain

A contemporary interpretation of Islamic architecture, inspired by timeless proportions, symmetry and material purity. It seats 2,000 worshippers under a dome carried on a square hall, with a pair of minarets on the entrance axis and the whole composition lifted onto a plinth.

Two minarets rather than one, placed on the entrance axis: at this size the mosque has to be findable from the approach road, and the pair reads as a gate where a single tower would read as an object.

The plinth does the site work. It takes up the fall across the plot, keeps the prayer platform clear of vehicles, and gives the arriving worshipper a flight of steps rather than a kerb.

Arcades run down both flanks. They are the overflow prayer space on a Friday and the shaded route between the ablution block and the hall on every other day.