A torus of Arabic calligraphy with no columns and no windows, holding an exhibition that is closer to immersive theatre than a museum.
Opened in February 2022, and the most architecturally interesting building in Dubai. Killa Design produced a silver torus — a ring standing on a green mound, 77 metres high, with a hollow centre representing the unknown — clad in 1,024 stainless steel panels, each a unique shape, cut with Arabic calligraphy that forms the actual windows.
The calligraphy is three quotations from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, including “The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it and execute it.” At night it is lit from within and the text reads across the whole facade.
Structurally it has no internal columns and no conventional windows — the letters are the openings. Building it required a great deal of parametric modelling and a diagrid steel frame, and the panel-fabrication problem alone took years.
Inside
It is not a museum in the collections sense. There are no objects of historical significance. It is a sequence of immersive, designed environments over five floors, each experienced in a set order.
You begin by taking a lift up to the top, framed as boarding a space station orbiting Earth in 2071, and work down. The floors cover a fictional near-future space agency; a HEAL Institute dealing with biodiversity and the DNA of extinct species; a wellbeing floor built around sensory experience and deliberately screen-free; and Future Heroes, a children’s floor of physical play that is genuinely good.
The production values are extremely high. Whether that adds up to a museum is a fair question and the building does not pretend otherwise — its own framing is closer to an experience or an exhibition than a collection.
Is it worth it
It is one of the more expensive tickets in Dubai, and for most visitors it is worth it once, mainly for the building and the top two floors. Families with children under twelve get the most out of it.
If your interest is genuinely historical, Al Shindagha and the Etihad Museum will tell you far more about the country for a fraction of the price.
Practicalities
Book online. Timed entry, and popular slots go days ahead.
Allow two to three hours; the pacing is controlled and you cannot rush it. Photography is permitted throughout and much of the design assumes you will.
The metro station is connected by an air-conditioned footbridge, which in this climate is a genuine consideration.
More Museums
Al Shindagha Museum
A string of restored merchant houses on the Creek telling the pearling story properly, and the best history museum in the emirate.
Etihad Museum
Built on the spot where the UAE was signed into existence in 1971, in a building shaped like the parchment they signed.
Al Fahidi Fort and Dubai Museum
The oldest building in Dubai, from 1787, which housed the city museum for fifty years and has been closed for restoration.