Central Mosque, Shali

All projectsCentral Mosque, Shali

Central Mosque, Shali

Chechen Republic, Russia

Built in less than 7 years in the Chechen city of Shali, the largest Mosque in Europe was officially inaugurated in August 2019. Accommodating over 20.000 worshippers, the "Pride of Muslims” mosque is a dazzling pearl of Islamic architecture and has already become an iconic and religious landmark for the whole country. An amazing LED lighting system specifically developed for this architectural masterpiece, delivers a magic aura to the mosque in the dark hours.

Year

2020

Project

Central Mosque

Location

Shali, Chechen Republic, Russia

Client

MechetStroy, Grozny

Project manager

Vladimir Golikov, Griven Russia

ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING CONCEPT
Developed by a team of highly qualified professionals during the last 4 years of the mosque’s construction, the selected lighting concept had to deliver a soft, homogeneous light distribution to the whole building. A seamless and emotional integration of the mosque into the surrounding environment was obtained through smooth, delicate pastel tones that would blend with the natural elements reflecting the different times of the day and of the year. Twelve color palettes were carefully selected so that believers visiting the mosque for the morning prayer would see the gentle shades of the dawn sky on its façades, while the evening illumination schemes had to reveal deeper crimson tones of a typical sunset.

For an optimal lighting design, many factors had to be taken into account such as the placement and installation of the selected lighting fixtures, their colour, shape and power so that all of these elements could work in harmony.

The lighting scheme of the Mosque is based on a combination of spot and flood light techniques, which highlight the main details of the mosque, defining its general shape. Illumination levels, output, uniformity and colour brightness have been carefully considered to identify the different architectural elements as well as the global readability of the building’s scale. An impressive number of different GRIVEN fixtures was required to deliver the needed illumination level as well as the decorative lighting scheme to this huge structure.

SELECTION AND CUSTOMIZATION OF THE LIGHTING EQUIPMENT
During the planning phase, a special attention was paid to the color mixing system of the selected fixtures. A 6-colour mixing system was specifically developed by GRIVEN’s lighting engineers to achieve the required level of color return, texture and reflection on the different surfaces of the mosque. The specified lighting fixtures were supplied complete with red, blue, green, amber, warm white and cold white LEDs selected in preset bins to allow the utmost colour uniformity, return and consistency.

The custom solutions developed by GRIVEN to an extremely tight project timing, ensure an aesthetically harmonious integration on the building. They were specified in a custom white RAL finish resembling the very same shade of the marble used for the façades. Their tailor-made fixation system allows a high precision aiming and superb endurance under conditions of intense wind and heavy vibration loads. All lighting fixtures were fitted with custom cables and equipped with an integrated RDM module, which simplifies the management and configuration of the control system. Last but not least, many of the installed units feature Griven’s POLAR EDITION technology, which allows a perfect functioning even in the most severe cold weather conditions.

Now the true essence of the mosque shines not only during the day, but also in the dark. Thousands of luminaires emphasize its architectural appeal with a surprising homogeneous visual perception. The new mosque has already taken its rightful place in the cultural life of Shali, the Chechen Republic and the whole country and we are proud and thankful to have contributed to this achievement.

Specialists of GRIVEN Russia representative office:
Project director: Vladimir Golikov
Project manager: Sergey Chuvikin
Chief designer: Nataly Koptseva
Lighting expert: Vasily Tarasenko
Head of ACS: Pavel Vasiliev
Senior lighting technician engineer: Pavel Polovnikov
Senior electrical engineer: Ilya Molokov
Head of construction dept.: Andrey Usoltsev
Project supervision: Giuseppe Froio, Griven Italy
Pictures: Abdullah Bersaev, Yusuf Zubairaev
Video: Yusuf Zubairaev