The Museum of the Future | Killa Design

The Museum of the Future’s site is on Sheikh Zayed Road, the main arterial spine in the centre of Dubai’s CBD. The museum site was selected on Emirates Towers precinct due to its federal nature of holding the UAE’s prime minister’s office. Killa Design cited the museum on an existing surface parking, due to its central position to connect Dubai Metro and Emirates Towers retail, commercial, and hotel through the museums podium structure, this created the vital pedestrian connection that was necessary to link the city to the site. The site also becomes pivotal visually to the heartbeat of central Dubai’s residences and visitors. The podium structure raises the museum above the metro line and at the same time replaces the previously mature trees that surrounded the carpark in a green hill structure. This vegetative hill is scalable connecting the museum and restaurants at different levels. The museum’s cultural context is by creating the ancient art form of Arabic calligraphy into being its fenestration and further contextualised within the city of Dubai by using the quotes of its ruler. The connectivity by Metro, Bus, pedestrian is therefore highly integrated within the museums location and urban surroundings to improve its greater context.

MOTF is comprised of three main elements: the green hill, the museum, and the void. The green hill represents the earth, with its roots in place, time, and history. The inspiration for the landscaped hill was to elevate the building in an unobstructive way above the adjacent metro line and create greenery in elevation that is uncommon in Dubai where visitors can enjoy a park environment within the city context while engaging with the museum. The torus shaped structure represents mankind’s ability to innovate and construct the limits of present-day engineering and construction methodology that has been represented in significant structures throughout the ages. The primary inspiration of the Museum of the Future is creating a form that represents the UAE’s Prime Minister’s vision of the future where the physical building embodies floors and spaces that represent our understanding of the “future” as we know it today and possibly for the next few years. In contrast the void represents the “unknown” and people who seek the unknown, innovate and discover new horizons and ideas that help guide humanity towards a better future.