Imagine how a museum could be redefined in a future context. Which facilities should it house and which elements must be exhibited? An interesting proposal about it will be built in Dubai (UAE), a region that hosts impressive buildings of various contemporary star architects. Architect Shaun Killa (head of Killa design practice) is assigned by UAE Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to create the Dubai “Museum for the Future”. It is located near the Burj Khalifa skyscraper. According to Killa, it will host of future innovation in various sectors from healthcare to education, energy and transportation. Its construction estimated to be finished at 2017.
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The museum will be built on triangular site (see figure 1 left) at the crossing of two highways. Related to nearby structures it will be a relatively short structure. It will be built onto an artificial hill (as one can suppose from the building’s renderings). Its main entrance is located approximately in the middle of the cliff covered by a very impressive canopy. Another entrance is located perpendicularly to the main entrance, formed as a protected hallway.
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The main structure is an oblong ovular volume, asymmetrically hollow in its middle. It resembles a time capsule that has landed on the hill. Its solid part is a wired steel- cladded and slightly perforated facade. These perforations are poems of Sheikh Mohammed. According to Killa, the solid part of the building is a symbol of the knowledge of the resent and the solid assumptions on how we know the future will be. On the other hand, the void part of the “capsule” symbolizes the unknown realities of the future.
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The perforations and the voids onto the artificial hill allow a small amount of light to enter the building. Due to UAE extreme climatic conditions, the lighting and air-conditioning of the building could be artificial, so as to achieve comfortable interior atmosphere by passive cooling solutions. As a Museum of the Future, it will have some parts 3d printed.
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Architect Killa states that the museum’s objective is not to host only exhibitions about innovation and be mainly a touristic attraction. It will be an innovation generator by uniting various inventors, innovators, designers and researchers. It will contain labs so as for them to be able to collaborate and create new versions of future realities. All the results of the researches conducted will be exhibited in the museum. The content of these exhibitions must change every six months.
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Sheikh Mohammed Bin vision of a very active innovation hub is translated into a very fluid and flexible exhibition space. It also contains a futuristic character (e.g. the capsule shaped elevators in the lobby). The interior spaces are organically shaped, with every surface to be an info projector. Moreover, there are no stable stands.
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The nature of the exhibits is also altered. An innovation lab’s exhibits could be also ideas – holograms of concepts projected to the interior but also at the façade’s void, spreading the knowledge of the future to come. Robots and interaction with the environment are crucial for the exhibitions.
Apart from exhibitions and research, the museum will host relevant events e.g. conferences. In other words, the innovative projects produced will be communicated to other researchers and inform and form worldwide new concepts.
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UAE and especially Dubai in the last years have been a significant player on the evolution of architectural disciplines in a variety of projects. Not only its massive economic growth but also the extreme climatic conditions have given very important parameters for the architecture to be expressed. Will this museum be a pioneer for relevant buildings? The challenge has been accepted.
