ANWAJ ISLANDS,
BAHRAIN
BACKGROUND: Amwaj Islands is an island development by Ossis Property Developers, reclaimed from the Arabian Gulf and home to a new billion dollar leisure development of hotels, apartments, retail centres and entertainment facilities.
BRIEF:To design a focal point for the high profile opening ceremony, the sculpture had to include a mix of ancient Arab technologies including mathematics and astronomy in an original work of art. It also had to make reference to the Kingdom of Bahrain.
SOLUTION: The resulting corporate sculpture is a stylized astrolabe - which came from the Arab world — and was an early means of accurately determining the time of prayer.
Beneath the etched glass astrolabe lie two pools of water representing the "two seas" of Bahrain (Bahrain's literal meaning is "two seas"). The respective pools are also appropriately lit: blue symbolizing sweet spring water and green symbolizing the ocean.