A SWINDON-based company has scooped a major international award for building a grand mosque in Abu Dhabi.

Halcrow, which has an office in Burderop Park, Wroughton, won the coveted Major Consultancy Project award at the British Expertise International Awards dinner in London.

The award was for work on the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque, or Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi, an ultra-modern Islamic structure.

The mosque has been built as a tribute to Sheikh Zayed, the former ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, who died in 2004.

His son, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, is the man behind the recent Manchester City takeover.

It is built to accommodate over 30,000 worshippers is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates and is considered to be the sixth largest mosque in the world.

Halcrow was involved in the architectural design and review, civil and structural engineering, and construction supervision over eight years.

The 82 domes are all decorated with white marble, and feature 107m-tall minarets.

The interior combines marble, gypsum, decorative wood panels, and marble and glass mosaics.

The main prayer hall has 96 columns clad with more than 20,000 marble panels inset with semi-precious stones, including lapis lazuli, red agate, amethyst, abalone shell and mother of pearl.

Sami Al-Qazzaz, regional director, Abu Dhabi, accepted the award on behalf of Halcrow.

He said: “This award really is the icing on the cake for us.

“It has been an amazing experience to work on this project and it is a real honour to receive this award.

“Everyone who contributed should feel extremely proud – as I do.”

The judging panel was led by the Duke of Gloucester, himself a qualified architect.

He said: “As president of British Expertise, one of my most pleasant duties is chairing the judging panel for the annual International Awards competition and identifying yet more ways that members have excelled.

“This year has produced a larger number of entries than ever before from across a wide range of sectors in which member companies work, and the standard of those we selected as the finalists is correspondingly high.”

Halcrow employs more than 7,500 employees working in more than 70 countries worldwide.

The company operates through a network of nearly 30 UK and over 40 offices internationally.

Its turnover is around £400million and core sectors include transportation, water and power, maritime and property.