Suggestions
Signify, the world leader in lighting, has brought a new look to the Grand Mosque in West Sumatra’s capital city, Padang. Built during the devastating 2009 earthquake, the Grand Mosque has become a symbol of hope and inspiration, and its 85-meter minaret has become an icon of the city.
Designed by award-winning architect Rizal Muslimin, the Grand Mosque does not have the usual dome. Instead, its roof is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional curvilinear roof found in Minang architecture. Built on four hectares of land, the Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in West Sumatra, and second largest mosque in Sumatra, enabling 20,000 worshippers to pray at the same time.
Our Grand Mosque is quite busy. A lot of people come here not only to pray, but also to participate in the many religious activities held here, whether before dawn, during the day or into the night, With our previous lighting, worshippers often complained that it felt hot in the mosque. With the lighting from Philips, it is now more comfortable inside. More importantly, we were able to reduce our energy consumption from 34,000 watts to only 7,000 watts.” - Mr. Karimis, Senior official of the Grand Mosque
“Signify wants to preserve and highlight the mosque's spiritual and traditional atmosphere, using lighting that can emphasize the unique shape of the roofs and the details of the exteriors and, at the same time, creating a comfortable ambience on the interior,” explained Rami Hajjar, Country Leader for Signify in Indonesia.
Using a Color Kinetics control system, the mosque management team can easily change the lighting schemes in order to emphasize architectural details or tweak the overall ambience around the mosque. For example, Vaya Flood and FlexAccent Track functional LED accent lighting are programmed to light up the main prayer hall with sunset colors for the Magrib prayers and with the velvet blues of the night sky for Isya’ prayers. Outdoors, the exterior Vaya Flood highlight the engravings of traditional motifs on the façade. The imposing minaret stands out radiantly at night under Vaya Flood lighting.
“We are delighted to provide lighting which helps the worshippers at the Grand Mosque of West Sumatra have a comfortable spiritual atmosphere during prayer and other religious activities in this Holy Month and beyond. We hope that the new ambience lighting will encourage people to keep coming and praying in the mosque even after Ramadan is over,” Rami concluded.
