Museum of the Future inaugurated in Dubai: Conception, unique aspects, what to expect and things to keep in mind while visiting

Museum of the Future, Dubai: A few days ago, the Museum of the Future was inaugurated in Dubai. The building is an eye-grabber for its unique shape, and for the void that is included within it. The museum is elliptical, with an elliptical void inside it. Despite having no columns, the building has seven floors and is 77 metres high. While architect Shaun Killa designed the museum and was its architect, the creation of the museum has been undertaken by the Dubai Future Foundation. Soon after the inauguration of the museum on February 22, Financial Express Online’s Bulbul Dhawan spoke to architect Shaun Killa as well as Dubai Future Foundation CEO Khalfan Belhoul to know more about the Museum of the Future.

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Khalfan Belhoul said, “The idea of the museum is to be the headquarters of all future convenings and dialogues in the world that can be housed here in Dubai. There’s a ballroom and a space that can accommodate 1,000 people, so that major events and dialogues can happen there. There’s also a theatre that hosts 350 people.”

The Dubai Future Foundation is the technology incubator and think tank of Dubai, formed with the aim of researching, investing and developing new platforms, industries and entrepreneurs in order to drive business as well as social development. The focus of DFF is to look at long-term issues and their solutions.

Dubai Museum of the Future: Conception of the unique building

Architect Shaun Killa explained how the idea of the unique building came about. “There were around 20 different submissions for the brief that the museum would be constructed on the Emirates Towers side. I proposed that the museum needed to be on the Sheikh Zayed Road (the main road of Dubai) right next to the metro so that it could be more visible, despite the fact that the site at the back of the Emirates Towers was a good site, very big. The site I chose was only a small car park of 100 cars. To put 30,000 square metres on top of this little car park meant that I had to go vertical with the design. There was also the metro line at 12 metres, and I wanted the building to be above the metro,” he said.

Shaun told FE Online that he then used an area of 20,000 metre squares, which included “the lobby, the auditorium, the shops, the restaurants, to lift the building above the metro line”.

From a farther view, the museum looks like it is hovering on the ground behind the metro line, piquing the interest of the viewers, including those who live in Dubai itself.

What to expect from the Museum of the Future

Museum of the Future is meant to display technologies of the future, with the intention of inspiring the general public to think about various aspects of future thinking. The displays include humanity in space, projects, current and prototypes, that look at several problem areas like city planning and environment, as well as immersive digital exhibits. In fact, the museum itself has been designed with the help of AI, and its facade, made of glass panels, has been cut precisely with the help of robotic arms.

“One big component of the museum is the trip to space and how we can leverage and elaborate on the advancement and efficiency of space travel. There is also focus on DNA sampling and genetics on one of the floors of the museum, because that will definitely play a massive role in the future. However, while the fourth and the fifth floors of the museum are technology driven, the third floor is completely opposite and it sends a strong message. The message in the third floor is that there is also a need to take the technology hats off and to focus on oneself as a human being. The human being has been the core of the past, is the core of the present and will continue to be the core of the future. Without us focusing on our well being, our senses and our interaction, none of the technological advancements would make sense because they simply would not be sustainable,” said Belhoul.

The second floor of the museum focuses on the near future and the more tangible products that we can expect to see in the next two to three years, like autonomous cars and robotic arms, while the first floor is for kids to have their own space. It is meant to be their own creative zones and the entire floor is an immersive journey for the kids, FE Online is told.

Unique architectural aspects

One of the unique features of the building that interests the viewers is the void in the construction. Killa said, “According to me, architecturally, the most powerful part of the entire museum is the big void in the middle of the museum because it represents the unknown of the future. The people who seek the unknown are the people who invent new things and discover new things. These new things will then constantly replenish the museum throughout the ages.”

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He also explained that from the original sketch, the idea had been to use the ancient art of calligraphy of the region and blend it with the words of Sheikh Mohammed about the future of the region and of the world, with this caligraphy acting as windows for the building. The original idea was retained, and has now been implemented with the help of precision cutting carried out by robotic arms.

While the visible unique aspect of construction is the void, the hidden architectural marvel is the absence of columns. “The building does not have any columns inside of the big exhibition space, so that the entire space can be used any which way for the displays. However, because exhibitions require the building to hold heavy loads, we had to use the entire skin of the building as the structure. It’s like a monocoque type of construction where the diagram itself becomes the absolute structure supporting the whole building. We do have a core where the elevators are going up and down, but that is the only vertical element we have in the building,” Killa said, adding that the museum is completely flexible for all the different types of exhibitions that have been put up today as well as those that will be displayed in the future.

Khalfan Belhoul said, “The curvature of the building creates some interesting spaces and space challenges in the building because of the uneven look, but I think we will take that any day for the beauty it’s producing in the external side. We also kind of played around with the internal to ensure that we use every corner of the building in an efficient and an immersive way for the visitors to experience and inside the building, some parts are completely immersive, where visitors don’t even know where they are and other parts allow them to see the calligraphy and appreciate the beauty of the museum building.”

Things to keep in mind when visiting Museum of the Future

However, there would surely be some things that would need to be kept in mind during a visit to such a magnificent display? We asked the DFF CEO. “There’s an immersive journey, and there’s obviously the kids area. So one thing to keep in mind is that there is a specific area specifically tailored for kids five years and below. Meanwhile, the immersive journey for individuals above five years is a separate one that extends for one and a half hours to two hours on an average. It can vary between 45 minutes to three hours depending on the individual’s own engagement with the content, but this is the average time and during this time, adults can leave their kids in the kids area which is completely enclosed as well as manned so that the children can be properly looked after. While the younger kids can be taken on the full journey, but I would say that some areas will give them a bit of a thrill, like the elevator simulating launch to space,” said Belhoul.