Can you believe that the Museum of the Future (MOTF) has been open for a year already?> The world’s most beautiful building first opened to visitors on February 22, 2022, and has inspired stunning pictures, reels and TikToks of this futuristic space ever since. We could wax lyrical about the MOTF but we’ll cut to the chase and present you with an in-depth visitor guide of what’s inside the Museum of The Future. Because it’s a crying shame if you still haven’t visited this architectural wonder that the rest of the world is talking about.
1. You’ll be time-jumping into the year 2071
Why 2071, you ask? That’s the year of the UAE’s centennial and marks 100 years of the seven emirates coming together. The museum houses a reimagined utopia 49 years from now, where humanity and technology co-exist in harmony and humankind has used the power of AI and robotics to solve the climate crisis, unearth new renewable energy sources and restore once extinct species and ecosystems. Nature is healing.
2. Go to the moon and back
This is the closest you’ll get to the experience of time and space travel and live out all your fantasies of Interstellar-esque mission ( until one of the futuristic tech companies exhibiting inside the museum invents a time machine, of course).
The museum is divided into five different immersive experiences or chapters.
Chapter 1 involves hopping aboard a rocket and blast off into space eventually docking at the OSS Hope, a space station 600km above earth. There, you can assign yourself to vital missions of your choosing, such as the Mars Pioneer Mission or the SOL Project – an international project that aims to harvest moonlight through photovoltaic cells as a renewable energy source for earth.
Ever been curious about how astronauts eat-in space or what you’d look like in a spacesuit? This experience will answer all those burning questions and more.
3. Be a bioscientist and heal nature
Who needs the wisdom of paperbacks when you can read genetic data from over 4,500 species can be accessed in Chapter 2 of the Musem of the Future?
Called the Vault of Life, this virtual DNA library looks more like a sci-fi lab out of Rick and Morty and is a treasure trove of thousands of models of species suspended inside glass cases.
Want to play mad (read genius) scientist? The mixed-reality recreation of the Amazon rainforest lets you mix and match a plethora of DNA sequences and over 2000 genetic codes to experience what bringing back extinct species to life and preserving endangered ones could be like.
4. It’s a museum that believes mental health is future wealth
Yes, the museum’s a champion of technology and its wonders, but it’s also aware that human beings are the true capital and believes that the future of wellness isn’t high-end spa treatments but mental health.
And so, Al Waha (Arabic for Oasis), the third chapter, advocates why healthy minds need digital detoxes. You’ll step inside screen-free interactive booths that let you experience the world through your senses like we were built to – feel vibrations that rebalance electromagnetic fields and the body’s natural rhythms as well as learn about the healing effects of movement, meditation, and water.
5. It has a dedicated space for kids that recreates the thrill of video games without screens
The museum’s Future Heroes exhibit (Chapter 5) is a testament to the saying that kids are the future. The futuristic playground takes the collaborative aspect of multiplayer video games, subtracts the button bashing and being glued to screens, and applies it to a real-life setting.
Kids have to take up missions and collect rewards (badges they can take home) by solving problems through in-person communication, collaboration, and creative thinking. It teaches them that a good future is a shared goal. They’ll be supervised by the museum’s guide the whole time.
6. There are flying silver penguins and jellyfish floating about
Okay, so that’s not what they’re called but you get the gist. The correct words for these aerial robots are aerobes and they welcome you as soon as you enter the light-filled atrium of the Museum of the Future. Looks like instead of birdwatching, sighting animal-shaped robots will be a common pastime in 2071.
7. Baristas too are robotic here
No, no, we don’t mean your neighbourhood cafe’s bored barista who repeats orders in a robotic monotone. Tucked away behind the lobby’s spiral staircase is a cafe with an actual cyborg barista named Bob.
Without making small talk or having to spell your name out, you can order your cuppas through your phone by scanning a QR code menu that features a range of beverages, from run-off-the-mill caramel latte to a more futuristic-sounding iced nitro pecan coffee.
8. Did we mention the robotic falcon drone?
Yes, we’re aware we’re geeking out hard and you should too. At the Tomorrow Today (Chapter 4), an exhibit that lets you dabble in and explore near-future technologies from the world’s leading researchers, designers and corporations, you’ll meet Robird.
Robird is a remotely controlled peregrine falcon that will be used to monitor and observe real birds.
It’s so precisely built to look like a real falcon, that other birds won’t be able to distinguish a RoBird from the real deal. We’re making a mental note to take a picture with it because it trumps the stereotypical Dubai tourist shot of holding a falcon any day!
9. The museum is poetry in steel and glass
Quite literally – the Arabic calligraphy that wraps around the building’s façade are quotes from a poem by H.H Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and blurs the line between art and architecture. The sections with calligraphy are in glass, which doubles up as the structure’s windows.
The words rendered in calligraphy are profound and meaningful and translate to: “We may not live for hundreds of years, but the products of our creativity can leave a legacy long after we are gone.” “The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it, and execute it.” And “The future does not wait. The future can be designed and built today.”
10. It has one of the most unique shapes and is full of symbolism
We couldn’t help coming back to this being an architectural marvel, guys. Sorry, not sorry.
‘Oval’ and ‘doughnut-shaped’ are terms that are too pedestrian to describe something as magical as the Museum of the Future. The word you’re looking for is ‘torus’, you’re welcome.
And the reason why this ring-shaped geometry was chosen is visionary – the circular structure of the torus represents the human eye that sees both the present and the future; the green mound that the museum is perched on symbolises Emirati history and how it lays the foundation for the future. The void in the centre is a nod to the unknown possibilities of the future.
To sum it up, this magnificent column-less building is a pillar of innovation, a work of art and we hope you purchase tickets to visit soon!