A new mosque built in Abu Dhabi by Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan includes an 18,000m² marble mosaic courtyard floor by UK artist and designer Kevin Dean using 37 different kinds of marble. The stone was produced by Italian specialists Fantini Mosaici, much of it on a waterjet cutter.

The Italians fixed the marble to a backing to create 2m square slabs, but it still took 400 men a year to lay the floor. The Mosque itself, reputedly the fourth largest in the World, has taken more than 10 years to build.

As well as the courtyard, Kevin, who is based in Southsea, Portsmouth, created designs for floors and walls inside the mosque – he is pictured above in front of his design for the entrance to the main prayer hall.

He says he referred to the local flora for inspiration, which is in contrast to the more usual geometric patterns of Islamic decoration. “They were open and willing to accept a fairly Western style of design,” says Kevin, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1982 and is now famous for his floral designs.

With a background in illustration and textiles, Kevin does not claim to be a marble expert and it was Fantini Mosaici using CAD-CAM who turned his designs into individual elements that could be cut from marble.

The Queen is visiting the United Arab Emirates shortly and the new Sheikh Zayed Mosque will be one of the sites she will be shown. Kevin has been invited along to be presented to her.

He told NSS that when he was invited to design the mosaics he thought: “Fantastic; I’ll give it a go.” And he says the project has resulted in more commissions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.