The Museum of the Future, Dubai's newest architectural wonder, opened to the public this week in a structure that resembles a sci-fi movie set. The museum, which has a unique curved design and is covered in poetry by Sheikh Maktoum, the late UAE vice president, and prime minister, imagines the world in 2071. It is crammed with vivid interactive displays connecting to the earth, outer space, the mind, body, and spirit that span six floors.
The museum, which was designed by Dubai-based studio Killa Design and was voted one of National Geographic's most beautiful structures last year, is located just off Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai's main highway. Its location, surrounded by hundreds of buildings, reflects Dubai's future role. The museum is the public face of Dubai's Future Foundation, a public-private partnership established by senior Emirati politician Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi.
The foundation brings together various government departments (such as those responsible for health care and engineering) to serve as an incubator for private businesses, artists, technicians, and designers of all kinds. From urban planning and space research to computing, gaming, and blockchain technology, the foundation is dedicated to learning about it all. With all of the excitement surrounding the museum's inauguration this week, which included a dazzling light show and speeches from rulers and major power brokers, the stage is now set for the museum to make its mark as Dubai shifts from an oil-based economy to a tourist-based one, and, its leaders hope, into an intellectual hub.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of the Future Foundation's board of trustees, stated during the museum's inauguration on Tuesday that he hoped it would be "an intellectual laboratory for cities of the future and governments of the future." He continued, "It will play a major role in improving Dubai's future position [and] providing a clear road map for Dubai's essential industries."
While much will rely on the museum's next steps, it already has a track record, having collaborated with hundreds of artists and technologists since its inception in 2008. The museum's visitors enter via an elevator to a makeshift space station. They see a problem when they look out across the earth: the earth is sick. Each visitor is then assigned a position (doctor, teacher) and given the duty of solving the world's issues. According to Brendan McGetrick, the museum's creative director, giving such an immersive experience is precisely what distinguishes the organization.
"We felt back then, as we do now, that the most urgent crisis we must confront is the crisis of imagination," he told. "When we first started with temporary exhibitions at the World Government Summit in Dubai in 2019, we felt back then, as we do now, that the most urgent crisis we must confront is the crisis of imagination," he said. McGetrick hopes that visitors understand that the museum's ultimate goal is to sort out "the issues and faults of the present and conceive ways in which these problems could supply the inspiration and raw material for a brighter future," according to McGetrick.
Selena Mattei