El Museo del Futuro de Dubai

Description

The museum of the future

The vision of the architect

The design of the Museum of the Future is signed by architect Shaun Killa, a veteran of the Dubai architecture sector for years. The museum was his first commission after launching his solo firm. According to Killa, the museum's design is intended to represent the vision of the future of Dubai and consists of three main elements: the hill, the structure and the void.

«The green hill represents the earth, solid, permanent and rooted in its place, in time and in history... The upper building, resplendent and futuristic, represents humanity, with all its strength, its art and its ability to create in harmony with the environment”, explains the Killa design agency. “Lastly, the elliptical void within the upper structure represents innovation. This is achieved, mainly, by creating an empty space that shows the future yet to be written that it holds for humanity, and the world, in a symbolic way.

A combination of art and design

What sets this museum apart is the Arabic calligraphy that covers the entire surface of the building, which, being made of glass, also serves as its windows. It includes verses from the poems of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, expressing his vision for the city.

The usable space of the museum includes several floors built on a hill, but the protagonist is the main building. It reaches 78 meters in height and is made up of seven floors, without any internal pillars, something that has been described as an engineering miracle.

This feat is made possible through a combination of advanced technology and 3D modeling, as well as the painstaking efforts of hundreds of engineers, builders and craftsmen from BAM International and BuroHappold, the main contractor and engineering consultants on the project, in addition to many another suppliers.

“Although the building has relied heavily on advanced technology, it is, after all, a man-made construction. An exceptional team has been working tirelessly. The façade panels were fabricated using robotics, however they were installed by men hanging from ropes. Although the interior forms were modeled in 3D, they were carefully hand-cast by hundreds of workers,” says the Dubai Future Foundation, developer of the Museum of the Future.

Using Building Information Modeling tools, museum designers were able to first simplify the building's shape, and then model the optimal design of its steel superstructure. You also have to take into account factors such as problems that arose during construction and the placement of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that had to be incorporated into the model, making it a truly complex project.

A glimpse into the future

Having carried out the digital design to the millimeter paid off during construction, according to Tobias Bauly, project director of the Museum of the Future by Buro Happold. The diagrid of the steel beams and the complex facade panels fit together without any problems, a great feat in any construction project and even more so in one as sophisticated as this.

The result is a building that not only embodies a vision of the future, but is a physical manifestation of what lies ahead for us. Although all the techniques and technology that contributed to its construction are of this time, no other major project has employed them all at once to such an extent and with such an effect.