Hatta sustainable waterfalls project

Hatta, United Arab Emirates

SAN Projects created a monumental marble mosaic on the Hatta Dam spillway in collaboration with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Brand Dubai. Completed on 7 December 2023, the 2,198.70-square-metre artwork achieved a Guinness World Record for the largest marble tile mosaic at that time.

More than one million marble tiles form portraits of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, honouring their roles in the founding of the United Arab Emirates. The artwork forms part of the Hatta Sustainable Waterfalls Project.

Production and delivery

SAN Projects led creative development, production and installation. The team coordinated artists, craftspeople and technical specialists to translate the portraits into mosaic, managing tile preparation, placement and on-site delivery at the scale of the spillway.

Working on the dam’s inclined spillway gave the project a specific architectural and landscape context. The portraits had to read as a unified image across a surface of more than 2,000 square metres, while being assembled from individual pieces of stone. SAN Projects brought together the creative and technical work needed to translate the image from a design into a completed outdoor mosaic.

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