Abrahamic Family House

Arriving at a particularly tumultuous time for the world, Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Family House, combining a mosque, synagogue, and church aiming to promote mutual understanding, feels more important than ever. Opened to the public in March 2023 with a focus on peaceful coexistence and inter-faith learning and dialogue, the center is also an active place of prayer for the United Arab Emirates’ Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities, hosting more than 250,000 worshippers and visitors in its first year and upward of 250 community events. Designed by embattled Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, each of the three houses of worship takes up residence in a bold yet delicate concrete cube with identical external dimensions. No one building dominates another and there’s a visual harmony to the grouping, with each structure also embracing its own individuality and religious references. The mosque’s elongated arches, dramatic vaults, and geometric mashrabiya latticework, for example, allow air to circulate and dappled light to filter into the space. The synagogue’s external V-shaped columns are inspired by the overlapping palm fronds of the sukkah, a traditional shelter used during the festival of Sukkot, and a bronze mesh tent cascades from a central skylight, referencing the original tabernacle. In the church, a ceiling of descending wooden linear battens represents a “shower of ecstatic redemption,” according to the architecture team and the gold leaf-covered abstract crucifix was crafted in Italy by the artists that produce sculptures for the Vatican. All three can be visited on free daily guided tours. Located on Saadiyat Island, the Abrahamic Family House neighbors the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi and the newly opened Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, and will soon be joined by a Natural History Museum, the Zayed National Museum, and an outpost of the Guggenheim. It’s all part of a wave of projects aiming to make Abu Dhabi a destination that will draw more residents and visitors through culture and art. Perhaps in the process, it will contribute to broadening worldviews, too.

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