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Wed, Nov 20, 2024 | Jumada al-Awwal 18, 1446 | DXB
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Look: Dubai's Museum of the Future officially opens with stunning light projections
Sheikh Mohammed, Sheikh Hamdan and Sheikh Maktoum open the 'most beautiful building on earth'
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Dubai's skyline officially welcomed its latest iconic landmark on the unforgettable night of 22.02.2022.
Dubbed as the "most beautiful building on earth", the Museum of the Future was illuminated with stunning futuristic light projections on Tuesday, marking its historic opening to the world.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, along with Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, inaugurated the iconic landmark during a grand ceremony that saw the Museum's exterior facade transform into a work of art.
Photo by Shihab
During the opening ceremony, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said, "The Museum of the Future is a message of hope, a global scientific platform, and an integrated institutional framework to shape a better future for all of us."
He added, "It embodies the active human imagination and the Emirati will that continues to excel the world. The Museum will be a forum for great minds, scientists, thinkers and experts from around the world."
Sheikh Hamdan noted that "The Museum of the Future will be an intellectual laboratory for cities of the future and governments of the future.. it will play a key role in strengthening Dubai's future position. The Museum will provide a clear roadmap for Dubai's vital sectors."
Photo by Shihab
Commenting on the opening of the landmark, Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, Chairman of the Museum of the Future, highlighted the resemblance between the philosophy of Sheikh Mohammed and the Museum of the Future.
He said, "In its continuously evolving and renewed concept, the Museum of the Future reflects the resilient and agile vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid in responding to changes of the future."
Standing at 77 meters and spread over an area of 30,000 square meters, the sparkling torus-shaped seven-storey pillarless marvel sits atop a hill on the arterial Sheikh Zayed Road.
It presents a stunning spectacle to onlookers, marking the arrival of a long-awaited landmark that was nine years in the making.
Photo: Twitter/Dubai Media Office
In parallel to the spectacular opening show, guests were taken through the story of Dubai Ruler as he led the evolution of the emirate from humble beginnings to key milestones, including the Hope probe's arrival to Mars' orbit during the same month last year.
The hollow space in the middle of the glazed calligraphy-wrapped structure that captured onlookers signified the unwritten future into which humanity as a whole can look towards.
Photo by Shihab
The Museum of the Future is the latest addition to Dubai's bold architectural endeavours while signalling the UAE's journey towards a bright future.
Beyond presenting a complex engineering miracle to the world, the Museum's interior promises to bring the future at the grip of visitors through an outstanding technology-empowered journey.
Visiting the Museum
Visitors can take a two-hour journey into the future inside Dubai's "first fully immersive museum" for Dh145 per ticket.
The Museum will take visitors for a futuristic ride to 2071 to experience what the future will look like across different sectors.
People will experience outer space, wander in a galactic experience, and reconnect with their mind, body, and spirit in a multi-sensory experience powered by the latest virtual and augmented reality technologies, big data analysis, human-machine interactions, and artificial intelligence.
The Museum will invite people to experience technologies and trends that will shape the future of humanity in a proactive approach that encourages visitors from all over the world to partake in creating their future.
Besides hosting future-related talks, seminars and discussions, the landmark will act as a testbed for emerging technologies and a platform for the world's leading scientists, thinkers, innovators and inventors to come together and develop out-of-the-box solutions to tomorrow's greatest challenges.
In a way, the opening of the Museum of the Future spurs a new era of scientific discovery in the region and beyond.
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What makes the landmark an engineering miracle?
The iconic landmark is mostly recognised for its futuristic façade, made of stainless steel and glass, engraved with 14,000 metres of illuminated Arabic calligraphy designed by renowned Emirati artist and sculptor Mattar bin Lahej.
This makes it the only building globally with a surface covered entirely in calligraphy art, bringing an Arabic spirit on a modern globally-acclaimed landmark and reflecting the Emirati heritage and passion for art.
In a first-of-its-kind venture in the Middle East, the 1,024 plates of the exterior facade were entirely manufactured by robots. Each plate is made of four layers, with each layer is created through a 16-step process.
Due to the building's complex geometry and flowing calligraphy, each separate panel was unique and had to be individually precast and produced, with numerous prototypes designed and manufactured before a winning formula could be achieved. The installation period, therefore, lasted for more than 18 months, with each panel installed separately.
The Arabic lettering on each panel was intricately designed to ensure optimum balance between natural light, solar heat gain and air conditioning load without compromising its architectural aesthetic.
This multi-layering of the 1,024 plates allows the Arabic script to cast natural light into the Museum by day. At night, the calligraphy illuminates with energy-saving, resource-efficient LED light with the resounding words of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid including his famous quote: "The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it, and execute it. It isn't something you await, but rather create."
The unconventional design of the Museum and its sustainability goals earned the landmark numerous global awards and National Geographic's title of "one of the 14 most beautiful museums in the world" even before its completion.
The iconic structure won the Tikla International Building Award as a unique architectural model, while Autodesk Design Software stated that the Museum is one of the most innovative buildings in the world.
Sustainability model
The building was designed with sustainability in mind.
The Museum is powered by 4,000 megawatts of solar energy produced by a station connected to the building, in collaboration with the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.
It is accessed via two bridges, the first of which extends to the buildings of Jumeirah Emirates Towers with a length of 69 meters, and the second connects it to the Emirates Towers metro station with a length of 212 meters.
Now that it's officially open, the Museum is the first of its kind in the Middle East to obtain a Platinum Certification for Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design, the highest rating for green buildings in the world.
A park surrounding the Museum contains 100 species of plants and is equipped with a state-of-the-art intelligent and automatic irrigation system.
The low-carbon project features passive solar architecture through its extraordinary façade, as well as low-energy and low-water engineering solutions with integrated renewable capabilities.
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