Rain of light

The newly opened Louvre Abu Dhab with a huge dome is a architectural wonder and a world-class museum. [Photo by Wang Kaihao/China Daily]

The bright sunlight of the Persian Gulf is diffused by almost 8,000 metal geometric patterns that form the white dome and project light spots across the floors and walls of the museum. The dappled shards of light move with the arc of the rising and setting sun. Leaves of Light, a vast bronze tree with mirrors placed in its branches, created by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone, is placed in the center of the courtyard, which makes the whole environment a little more surreal.

The dome is said to be inspired by the tree shades at the Al Ain Oasis - an inland oasis ecosystem dating back 3,000 years, which is part of the UAE's only UNESCO cultural heritage site.

This delicate work of architecture, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, is perhaps the first art work that visitors to the Louvre Abu Dhabi notice. Nouvel is the winner of 2008's Pritzker Prize, the world's highest architectural accolade.

"I play with light and geometry and I want the museum to be like an Arabian agora," Nouvel says at the museum's inauguration ceremony. "But I don't want to repeat something that already exists."

But how much did it cost to construct such an architectural masterpiece over the course of a decade? It still remains a secret.

Louvre Abu Dhabi is not a single building, but looks more like a community: 55 individual white buildings lie within the dome. Nouvel claims the idea was inspired by the architecture of Medina, an Islamic holy city in Saudi Arabia.

According to a report by Dubai-based newspaper Gulf News, the UAE paid as much as 1,928 million dirham ($525 million) to use the name "Louvre" for 30 years and six months, based on an agreement with France.