In order to make sense of the Abrahamic Family House, a lavish religious complex designed by David Adjaye on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, one might begin a few hundred yards away, in a darkened gallery at the Jean Nouvel–designed Louvre Abu Dhabi. There, bathed in warm light, sit a Yemeni Hebrew Torah, a two-volume Parisian Gothic Bible, and a decorated Quran from Damascus—the three “Religions of the Book,” as the wall text refers to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, brought together in a display of religious harmony. At the Abrahamic House, the tableau has undergone a leap in scale and medium, emerging in the tripartite form of a mosque, a church, and a synagogue, each a 100-foot-tall cube of bush-hammered concrete, that stand atop an expansive limestone plaza. The message, too, has grown in its pretensions: whatever their differences, this complex suggests, these peoples of the book are united by a common origin—and under the model of tolerance promoted by the United Arab Emirates, peaceful coexistence lies squarely within reach.

Visitors can enter through a welcome center, or climb up to a landscaped plaza. Photo © Dror Baldinger, click to enlarge.