Zayed National Museum opens as a falcon-winged beacon in Abu Dhabi

The Zayed National Museum's five-falcon wing-shaped lightweight steel towers in Abu Dhabi rise prominently and confidently towards the skies as if they are about to take flight. The movement embodied in the design of the towers, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Lord Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, is symbolic of the strength, courage, determination and pride of the falcon, the national emblem of the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf nation which celebrated its 54 years as a country since it was united and founded by late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1971.

To mark the occasion, after around 15 years of construction, the Zayed National Museum has opened to the public on 3 December, a day after the UAE’s National Day.

Inside the brand new Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi

Sheikh Zayed loved falconry and viewed it as a vital part of Arabian heritage and a means to connect with nature and his local Arabian Bedouin culture. The Zayed National Museum strives to do exactly this – celebrate Sheikh Zayed’s legacy while preserving the emirate of Abu Dhabi’s rich past, its connection with the land, local culture and ardent stride towards the future.

The architecture of the museum is another example of the mastery of Lord Foster. The towers also act as thermal chimneys, part of a sustainable cooling system to draw cool air into the galleries below.

'At the time of the commission, the site was completely undeveloped; it was really the desert,' said Lord Foster. 'Before you had cheap energy, you worked with nature, with the elements, and this is very much in accord with the vision and passion of Sheikh Zayed of greening the desert, creating gardens, and working with nature.'

Lord Foster notes how his firm created an 'environmental system,' with the building leveraging 'thermal mass,' he notes, through its buried, mound-like structure. It goes back to ideas of traditional desert architecture, says Lord Foster and is dug into the earth to take advantage of the ground’s insulating properties and cooler temperatures.

Traditional Arabian design elements blend with modern design throughout the structure. For instance, traditional desert architecture often uses light and shadow to control heat. The Zayed Museum incorporates subtly placed openings to capture and emanate sunlight into the interior spaces.

Beneath them, the museum’s multifaceted concrete structure offers an immersive journey spanning Abu Dhabi’s ancient history to the present day. The museum has six permanent galleries positioned across two floors containing artefacts from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages found across the Emirate. A separate gallery serves for temporary exhibitions. The collection includes over 3,000 pieces, of which 1,500 will be on display, each meticulously chosen for the stories they relay about the land and its people.

The museum is situated in the Saadiyat Cultural District on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, positioned. Before entry into the museum, visitors will encounter a 600-meter-long path called Al Masar Garden, an outdoor verdant gallery featuring native plants and trees representative of the desert, oasis and urban environments of the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Stretching from the coast of Saadiyat Island and located between the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the newly opened Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi to the entrance of Zayed National Museum, the garden features a working falaj irrigation system, the ancient, gravity-powered method for irrigation used particularly in the UAE and Oman and contemporary sculptures, reflecting the life and vision of Sheikh Zayed and the history of the UAE.

'I think the idea of growing a garden from the coast through the desert to the oasis is a symbolic element of the building,' adds Lord Foster, emphasising how the museum metaphorically reflects 'the idea of arriving at the oasis. The building serves as a container for the memorabilia and the story of the Emirates, which is an important story for younger generations and those visiting [Abu Dhabi] who would have had no idea of the roots of the Emirates and the vision of this extraordinary individual so pivotal to its founding.'

fosterandpartners.com