Adjaye Associates

Abrahamic Family House

ABRAHAMIC FAMILY HOUSE

Adjaye Associates

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Zublin Construction

SIGNAGE AND WAYFINDING
Maynard

CLIENT PROJECT MANAGER
Arcadis

PHOTOGRAPHS
Dror Baldinger, Arwa Alhati

AREA
6500 M²

YEAR
2023

LOCATION
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

CATEGORY
Churches, Synagogue, Community Center

The Abrahamic Family House is a collection of three religious spaces: a mosque, a church, and a synagogue—all of which will sit upon a fourth secular space consisting of a Forum and raised garden.

Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates
Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates

The house will serve as a community for interfaith dialogue and exchange, nurturing the values of peaceful co-existence and acceptance among different beliefs, nationalities, and cultures.

Within each of the houses of worship, visitors can observe religious services, listen to holy scripture, and experience sacred rituals.

Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

The form is translated from the three faiths, carefully using the lens to define what is similar, as opposed to what is different.

Through the power of these revelations, the design emerges as powerful plutonic forms with a clear geometry: three cubes sitting on a plinth.

Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

The narrative of each religion unfolds through various scales—from structure to detail—and emerges through the elements of creation—water and light.

Each chamber sits within a courtyard with triangular water features designed to cool the body. Upon entering each house of worship, light bathes visitors while hot air is pulled from the perimeter towards the adorned ceilings, tempering the interior.

Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

Wrapped in an off-white concrete that deflects the heat of the sun and references the sand and mountains of the Emirati, each form is oriented towards religious references whilst sitting within a unifying garden.

The Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque is oriented towards Mecca. Light filters through the delicate GRP latticework of the mashrabiya screens, which circulate air while maintaining privacy.

Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

Four seamless, monolithic columns represent the Islamic notions of stability, order, and fullness and create a vaulting space that orients the visitors toward the mihrab.

The only fully opaque wall billows to make room for the simplistic stone mihrab, which is bathed in the patterned light from the screens.

Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

The only fully opaque wall billows to make room for the simplistic stone mihrab, which is bathed in the patterned light from the screens.

Mediating between the elements and privacy, an inverted dome and pyramid ceiling within a square form signifies the female and male ablution.

Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Arwa Alhati

The St. Francis Church is oriented towards the rising sun in the East, along with a forest of columns that composes the form to allow light to enter from the exterior.

From the courtyard, two uneven columns suspend above the entrance symbolizing the testing of faith. A warm wooden portal guides you into the congregation space where Adjaye Associates designed oak pews face towards the altar.

Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

Inspired by the altar of St Peter’s Basilica, a canopy of linear timber elements cascades down from the ceiling in a “shower of ecstatic redemption.

” A marble altar, ambo, and tabernacle, as well as an oak credence table and three chairs, sit on the sanctuary below the crucifix—a humanoid form with no indication of race or creed.

A baptistry is located beside the church, denoted by a conical form that emerges above the courtyard walls with scattered small windows of light emitting for the interior. Inside, an octagonal room houses a baptismal font, which emerges from the ground in a rough-cut marble form.

Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

The Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue is oriented towards Jerusalem. A series of three V-shaped columns amass to create a screen between the interior and exterior, referencing the overlapping layers of palm fronds on the sukkah—a structure used during Sukkot, the Jewish festival of shelter.

A bronze mesh tent—symbolizing the original tabernacle— cascades from a skylight in the ceiling and drapes over the congregation.

A stone wall envelopes the base, from which the ark emerges, and, along with Adjaye Associates designed oak seating featuring the V-shaped motif, faces towards the bimah.

Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Arwa Alhati

The mikveh is located adjacent to the entrance and is composed of limestone walls.

A skylight punctures through a textured, monolithic ceiling, allowing light from above to enter the intimate space of the mikveh.

The fourth space—not affiliated with any specific religion—will serve as a Forum for all people to come together with the collective ambition to convene spatially, through courtyards, a central entrance, a library, an exhibition space, and interpersonally, through community educational and event-based programming.

Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Arwa Alhati

With access to each chamber’s courtyard, it is a place of convergence, rather than divergence.

A destination in itself, the raised garden creates a viewing platform to take in all three religious structures, promoting a sense of harmony and interconnectivity whilst asserting their individualism.

Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates
Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates

Framed by date palms to symbolize entrances and punctuated by planters with regional vegetation and water features for cooling, the garden becomes a climate-moderated space of collective respite.

Profound or mundane moments are cultivated throughout, encouraging the celebration of collective history and collective identity at all scales.

Abrahamic Family House
Courtesy Of Adjaye Associates


Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Arwa Alhati
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger


Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger
Abrahamic Family House
© Dror Baldinger

Abrahamic Family House
© Arwa Alhati
Abrahamic Family House
© Arwa Alhati

Abrahamic Family House
West elevation
Abrahamic Family House
South elevation
Abrahamic Family House
North elevation
Abrahamic Family House
Church structural diagram
Abrahamic Family House
Church structural diagram


Abrahamic Family House
Site cross sections
Abrahamic Family House
Site long section
Abrahamic Family House
Church perspective section
Abrahamic Family House
East elevation
Abrahamic Family House
Church environmental strategy
Abrahamic Family House
Mosque environmental strategy
Abrahamic Family House
Synagogue environmental strategy
Abrahamic Family House
Church perspective section
Abrahamic Family House
Synagogue perspective section
Abrahamic Family House
Mosque perspective section

Abrahamic Family House
Synagogue sections
Abrahamic Family House
Church sections


Abrahamic Family House
Synagogue ground floor plan
Abrahamic Family House
Church structural diagram
Abrahamic Family House
Mosque ground floor plan
Abrahamic Family House
Site plan


Abrahamic Family House
Synagogue ground floor plan
Abrahamic Family House
Lower ground floor plan
Abrahamic Family House
Podium floor plan
Abrahamic Family House
Roof plan

Adjaye Associates
T +1 212 9658477
Adjaye Associates
One Liberty Plaza, Suite 2701, New York, NY 10006, United States