Photo essay: The understated architecture of the Armed Forces Shohada Mosque

A fusion of traditional and contemporary design with ornate and minimalist sensibilities, the Armed Forces Shohada Mosque is an understated and welcoming solace in one of Dubai’s busiest neighbourhoods.

One of the city's most architecturally striking mosques, the building is on Al Bada Street, parallel to Al Wasl Road, behind City Walk and next to the Coca-Cola Arena.

Built in 1999, the mosque welcomes visitors with a tranquil, still fountain surrounded by strategically placed palm trees. One of the most interesting architectural features of the mosque is the colonnaded pathway, a long sequence of columns joined at the top, which encircles most of the area.

Colonnades can either be free standing or part of a larger structure. Often used in classical architecture, colonnades generally feature one of three classical column types – the Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. They are often high and include many decorative details. Even in Islamic architecture, colonnades are high and more ornate.

But here the crescent-shaped colonnade is wide and lower to the ground, creating a more humble, welcoming space and one with a more focused design.

The minaret is a narrow, slender and contemporary tower. Instead of being overly ornamented, the perforated surface helps to elevate its simple design elements at night.

At the end of a wide pathway, within the arched colonnade, is the mosque itself.

There is a small dome at the top but most of the structure is made up of bold, square shapes. Overall, the design is minimalist, bar the parapet cresting ornamentation on the roof’s edge and the pointed arch windows with perforated screens.

The Armed Forces Shohada Mosque fuses traditional architectural features and key stylistic elements from the region, all within a contemporary design.

'Outclassed in Kuwait'
Taleb Alrefai,
HBKU Press

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Sheikh Zayed's poem

When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge

You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm

Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you

You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it

Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.

How it works

A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank

Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night

The charge is stored inside a battery

The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode

A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes

This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode

When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again

The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge

No limit on how many times you can charge

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The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative