Speirs and Major Associates

We often get interesting submissions to Dirty Mouse, and this one for lighting architects Speirs and Major Associates is terrific. They sent us a few shots of the new mosque in Abu Dhabi. The mosque is named after Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nayhan, and is a building of extraordinary dimensions: it is the largest mosque in the Emirates and the third largest worldwide, featuring the biggest dome of a mosque in the world

In keeping with other religious buildings, the mosque attaches special symbolic importance to light. Within the interior, light appears woven into the fabric of the building, with all equipment hidden from view. Most striking of all is the exterior lighting which appears to ebb and flow according to the lunar-cyclical Islamic calendar. Director Jonathan Speirs explains: “In the same way as the moon has an impact on the tides, we wanted the moon to have an impact on the building. Our idea was to have a building that, by full moon, is lit pristinely with white light, but with a textural quality evocative of clouds slowly drifting in front of a full white moon. As the moon wanes over its 28 day cycle, the lighting grows gradually bluer to signify darkness. On the fourteenth evening the mosque is lit in deepest blue.”

i29

Jeroen Dellensen sent us these fantastic pics of i29’s interior design of a public school in the Netherlands.

This is from the official press release, “In the design for the new accommodations of public school Panta Rhei in Amstelveen (NL) there is a lot of attention on the balance between freedom and a sense of security. Snelder Architecten realised a building with many open multifunctional spaces where students can make themselves familiar with the teaching material. The interior design by i29 links up with that perfectly and gives the spaces an identity that connects with the students’ environment and addresses them directly and personally. i29 let itself be inspired by the name of the school. Panta Rhei, meaning ‘every-thing flows’, ‘everything is in motion’. This led to a design that leaves space for the imagination of the users, offering elements that can be used flexibly, which also propagates the school’s identity.”

New Offices for Shilo

This looks a mighty fine studio environment in which to work! The filmmakers from creative production company Shilo recently collaborated with architects Jim Brown and Jim Gates, the principals of San Diego based Public Architecture + Planning, to design their new studio, which is located in the heart of downtown La Jolla at 7650 Girard Avenue.