DUBAI-based Blue Stream Environmental Technology, a leading designer and manufacturer of street furniture and urban décor receptacles in the Middle East and South Asia, has added another iconic landmark to its portfolio having recently completed landscaping around the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in the UAE.

Located in Abu Dhabi, the mosque is one of the world’s largest mosques, with a capacity to accommodate up to 41,000 worshippers simultaneously. Its architecture is spectacular with white marble walls, painted columns and unique vitrals and it is adorned with 82 beautiful domes and 24 carat gold-gilded chandeliers.

Hence, the landscaping was required to be befitting the grandeur of the mosque. “The scale of landscaping around the mosque is breath-taking with reflective pools that illuminate both the white and gold colours shining in the sun as well as the phases of the moon at night,” says Suvarna Jeetendra, managing director of Blue Stream.

The company worked with Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque authorities for the development of urban landscaping of this grand spectacle.

The company’s scope of works included complete urban furniture design, fabrication, supply and installation of street furniture items. Blue Stream collaborated with the client closely to aesthetically design many elements that match the general layout of the mosque, focusing on bringing out the majestic and also serene and peaceful surrounding of the ambient environment.

Commenting on the project, he says: “The management already had an idea of what they wanted with regard to the street furnishings. The main focus was upgrading the existing urban furnishing around the mosque.

“They wanted to give the streetscape a new feel and breathe new life into the environment, considering the popularity the mosque which was enjoying more than 300 visitors a day. It is fast becoming one of the most visited monument sites in the UAE as well as a regular landmark in every tourist itinerary. This had a lot to do with the management’s decision to upgrade the streetscapes and its capacity to contain all the visitors.

Blue Stream worked very closely with the management, offering them renderings of their existing public space and how it would look along with the new street furniture layout.

Street furniture and fixtures at Sheikh Zayed mosque.

Suvarna continues: “The idea was to take actual images of the site and superimpose the suggested street furniture onto those images to give the client a perspective of how the urban landscape would look when the new street furniture is bought in.

“There was a lot of collaborative work to finalise the finishing and the aesthetics of the street furniture so that the ambiance and the overall appeal of the mosque are mirrored in the implementation of the new street furniture.

“The primary focus was seating arrangement designs and coordinated litterbins. As can be seen from the design, a large part of the external finish involved lustrous polishing which matched the existing features of the mosque. Furthermore, the designs chosen were also architecturally similar or related to the design elements of the mosque.”

“There was a clear understanding between Blue Stream and the Grand Mosque management that the prestige and calibre of this project would be of one of the highest in the world,” he says, Great efforts were taken to ensure that the end-product was not only be extremely durable and of high quality but also have a fantastic finish and feel to it.”

According to Suvarna, the products were made from botticini marble and polished with a glossy finish as required. Also, it has been offered with a strong warranty specification and provided with a special protective coating to ensure durability against the harsh climatic conditions.

Impressive results

The client, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in this case, has expressed immense satisfaction with the products and the overall benefit the mosque has achieved with the installation of Blue Stream’s products, according to Suvarna.

“Being extremely pleased with the design and the overall effect on the urban landscape, they are looking to collaborate further with Blue Stream in enhancing their public spaces.

“Blue Stream has worked on a number of such iconic projects in the past and continues to do so throughout the GCC and South Asia region. Close understanding of clients and their requirements especially on such well-reputed projects is a must and Blue Stream has successfully shown that it can collaborate on the highest level in terms of design, development, manufacturing, supply and eventual implementation of street design projects.

“Most of our designs are project-specific and we work meticulously with clients to conceptualise and develop a customised range of urban décor products for their projects. The final product material and structure is designed very much in conjunction to the layout of the street or area, guaranteeing a perfect blend. Our wide range of products offers each customer the exact kind of product that would match the ethos of their projects,” he points out.

“The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is another feather in our cap, which shows that we have the capacity to work on all kinds of world-class projects to deliver truly breath-taking public space designs,” he adds.