The Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi is under construction. Designed by Foster + Partners, it will showcase the history and culture of the UAE and be dedicated to the country's founding president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The museum features five feather-like solar towers that will heat up and draw cooling air through the galleries using thermal stack effect, providing natural ventilation. The wing-shaped towers and focus on falconry relate to Sheikh Zayed's love of the subject.
The Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi is under construction. Designed by Foster + Partners, it will showcase the history and culture of the UAE and be dedicated to the country's founding president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The museum features five feather-like solar towers that will heat up and draw cooling air through the galleries using thermal stack effect, providing natural ventilation. The wing-shaped towers and focus on falconry relate to Sheikh Zayed's love of the subject.
The Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi is under construction. Designed by Foster + Partners, it will showcase the history and culture of the UAE and be dedicated to the country's founding president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The museum features five feather-like solar towers that will heat up and draw cooling air through the galleries using thermal stack effect, providing natural ventilation. The wing-shaped towers and focus on falconry relate to Sheikh Zayed's love of the subject.
The Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi is under construction. Designed by Foster + Partners, it will showcase the history and culture of the UAE and be dedicated to the country's founding president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The museum features five feather-like solar towers that will heat up and draw cooling air through the galleries using thermal stack effect, providing natural ventilation. The wing-shaped towers and focus on falconry relate to Sheikh Zayed's love of the subject.
Project at a Glance Project : Zayed National Museum Architects : Foster + Partners Location : Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE Status : Under construction Engineers : WSP/BDSP AKT Landscape : Atelier Dreiseitl Architects Tourism Development+ Investment Client : Company Project Area : 66,042 sqm
Designs for an awe-inspiring wing-shaped museum in Abu Dhabi called the
Zayed National Museum have been recently unveiled by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Designed by Foster and Partner architects and conceived as a monument and memorial to the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE, the Museum will be the centerpiece of the Saadiyat Island Cultural District (Located 500 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island is the largest single mixed-use development in the Arabian Gulf) and will be dedicated to showcasing the history and culture of the country.
The aim of the projects has been to combine a highly efficient, contemporary form with elements of traditional Arabic design and hospitality to create a museum that is sustainable and architecturally striking.
The museum features five feather-like solar towers which rise from a man- made, landscaped mound. The galleries are placed at the bases of these thermal towers which heat up and act as thermal chimneys to draw cooling air currents naturally through the museum. Fresh air is captured at low level and drawn through buried ground-cooling pipes and then released into the museum’s lobby. The heat at the top of the towers works to draw the air up vertically through the galleries due to the thermal stack effect. Air vents open at the top of the wing-shaped towers taking advantage of the negative pressure on the lee of the wing profile to draw the hot air out.
Towers in the museum are lightweight steel structures, sculpted
aerodynamically to work like the feathers of a bird’s wing. The analogies with falcons and flight are deliberate and relate directly to Sheikh Zayed’s love of falconry. This theme is further celebrated by a gallery devoted to the subject as part of a wider focus on conservation. These inner spaces open up to an outdoor arena for live displays with hunting birds.
Balancing the lightweight steel structures with a more monumental interior
experience, the galleries are anchored by a dramatic top-lit central lobby, which is dug into the earth to exploit its thermal properties and brings together shops, cafes, an auditorium and informal venues for performances of poetry and dance. Throughout, the treatment of light and shade draws on a tradition of discreet, carefully positioned openings, which capture and direct the region’s intense sunlight to illuminate and animate these interior spaces. Objects are displayed within niches and on stone plinths that rise seamlessly from the floor. The museum also contains a variety of performance spaces. A large auditorium, lined with Emirati textiles, provides an evocative setting for presentations and films. The lobby incorporates more informal venues for poetry readings, music and dance, where the audience can gather in a circle to enjoy the spectacle and atmosphere of traditional performances.
The interior concept for the restaurant draws on the opulence and hospitality of the Bedouin tent, with carefully selected furnishings. The majlis, or VIP spaces, open onto a central courtyard. This traditional space offers guests a unique perspective, as it is the only place in the museum where one can enjoy views of the wind towers.
"It has been a great privilege to work on the Zayed National Museum, to carry forward Sheikh Zayed’s vision and to communicate the dynamic character of a contemporary United Arab Emirates. We have sought to establish a building that will be an exemplar of sustainable design, resonating with Sheikh Zayed’s love of nature and his wider heritage," said Lord Foster.
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