The photograph in the header of this blog shows the courtyard of the Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi. That is a huge structure, with a 75 m high dome, 107 m high minarets, room for 40,000 believers and far too much of everything. On the one hand, the building has the dullness of computer-generated and repetitive mass-produced architectural design, but on the other hand it is undoubtedly an orientalist dream.
The Gulf had no tradition of large buildings. Therefore European architects and designers (Halcrow, Spatium, Speirs & Major) were hired to create this oriental fairy tale palace, from which a flying carpet can take off at any moment. Style elements from various existing buildings, from Morocco to India, have been merged into an intensified oriental complex. It reminds one a bit of certain industrial foodstuffs, as for instance a strawberry sauce that is enriched with strawberry flavour to make it even more strawberryish.
Apparently the client was satisfied with it, so everything is fine. Yet it is remarkable that orientalism was accepted here, although in Arab countries it is usually criticised.
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