Foster + Partners unveils long-awaited Zayed National Museum on Saadiyat Island
Soaring ventilation towers modelled on the wings of a falcon signal the Zayed National Museum, completed by British studio Foster + Partners on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
The long-awaited museum by Foster + Partners is the centrepiece of Saadiyat Island's cultural district, where the Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel and the upcoming Guggenheim museum by Frank Gehry are also located.
It is dedicated to the UAE founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and celebrates the history, culture and landscape of the Emirates across seven galleries.
"Zayed National Museum is located at the heart of the Saadiyat Cultural District, which includes a constellation of new cultural buildings along its coastline," studio founder Norman Foster told Dezeen.
"Our site is located further inland, with a direct pedestrian route through the Al Masar Garden that connects the museum to the coast," he explained.
"The project's civic spaces will complement retail and residential areas around the edges of the site – contributing to the creation of a new cultural neighbourhood for Abu Dhabi – a miniature city within the city."
The 88,870-square-metre museum is defined by its five giant steel towers, described by Foster as "thermal chimneys" that draw cool air inside the building.
Each tower has a unique size and shape, with the tallest peaking at 123 metres, and they are positioned to prevent overshadowing so natural light can enter through their glazed exteriors.
Together, they are intended to emulate bird wings, symbolising Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's love for falconry.
"The wings draw out hot air from the building's atrium by taking advantage of the negative pressure on the leeside of their profiles," explained Foster.
"The tips of the wings heat up to create thermal currents of rising air. This combines to pull air, which is cooled naturally deep beneath the desert floor, into the building to regulate the temperature of the interior spaces."
Zayed National Museum is also cooled by the faceted mound that envelops its exterior, designed to evoke desert topography. It incorporates public space, such as shaded pathways and a viewing platform.
The building has a pared-back material palette, dominated by white concrete made with local crushed marble and intended to mirror the sand on Saadiyat Island.
"At the time we were appointed, our site and the surrounding area were undeveloped, which prompted us to draw inspiration directly from the land itself," said Foster.
The concrete is teamed with patinated bronze detailing, seen on the gallery entrances and in the wayfinding, and painted steel and aluminium on the towers.
Zayed National Museum is organised around the honed-concrete drum walls, which have a layered appearance created by pouring the concrete in situ. This is most visible in the cavernous lobby, named Al Liwan, where there is a shop and auditorium.
Two of the permanent galleries are accessed from the lobby, while the remaining four are on the first floor, suspended from the drum walls in what Foster describes as "pods".
By suspending these pods, which are clad in glass-reinforced concrete panels, gaps are created around them, allowing natural light from the towers to enter the lobby.
These gallery pods vary in size depending on their content, creating a "deliberate shift in scale" as visitors move from the entrance area, Foster said.
"Pod-like galleries are suspended under four of the building's five wings. They appear to float within the space and vary in size to support the range of artefacts on display," said Foster.
"The experience is incredibly uplifting – with daylight bouncing off the pods and the walls of the lobby."
There are over 3,000 artefacts in the museum, telling the story of Abu Dhabi and the UAE from 300,000 years. Highlights include the recreation of a Bronze Age boat in the museum's atrium and a scale model of the Hili Grand Tomb – a Bronze Age tomb in Al Ain.
Completing the building is the 600-metre-long Al Masar Garden, which is divided into four thematic zones and culminates at an entrance plaza with a grand fountain.
The garden is finished with more than 900 different plants and trees, animal sculptures and an irrigation system modelled on a falaj – an ancient water-harvesting system.
Foster + Partners won a competition to design Zayed National Museum in 2007, before construction began in 2008. During a tour of the building, Abu Dhabi's chairman of the department of culture and tourism said that Foster's design was selected for the way it celebrated local cultural and heritage.
"Norman Foster really did that very well here compared to the other architects, and that's why his design was chosen," chairman Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak told Dezeen.
The opening of Zayed National Museum follows that of the Natural History Museum by Mecanoo, which has a blocky form modelled on rock formations, and the Abrahamic Family House by Adjaye Associates in 2023.
The photography is courtesy of Zayed National Museum.
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