The Sharjah Mosque

The Sharjah Mosque is the second largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates, and is both an architectural and spiritual landmark. The aim of the lighting design created by Light Concept and Tanas Khoury was therefore to preserve and highlight the religious and architectural values of the complex.

The lighting design of the façade and external areas has helped create a picturesque and inviting atmosphere for visitors, as well as making the complex stand out at night. The mosque is built on a small hill, so it can be seen from a considerable distance.

The light effect creates a harmonious continuity between the inside and outside of the mosque, helping people to build a personal connection with the space, whether they are praying or simply admiring the mosque.

Particular attention was paid to light and shadow effects and a range of colour temperatures from 2500 K to 3000 K to create depth and define all the important details, especially on the façades.

The lighting is operated by an advanced control system that reduces energy consumption and allows light scenarios to be created.

By installing luminaires with a maximum energy yield, the project succeeded in reaching an average consumption for the entire mosque area of 0.08 Watts per square metre, as well as reducing the problem of light pollution.

iGuzzini contributed to the splendour of this complex with its La Venaria device, a pole-mounted luminaire, developed by Michele De Lucchi in 2011 for the square in front of the Venaria Reale, one of the Savoy palaces in Turin. The specific request for the huge area that surrounds the mosque was to create uniform, homogeneous lighting that would guarantee safety with the minimum number of pole-mounted luminaires.

The Venaria luminaire is 9 metres high and has a 1.5-metre diameter glass-fibre pole-top. It uses 250 LEDs which, thanks to an elliptical, asymmetric optic, can illuminate an area of up to 100 m2.

This means that the entire outdoor car park area has been lit with just 30 luminaires.