Museum of the Future is based on UAE’s Founders Visions on how the World and UAE would look like almost 50years in the future, that too from now! It has in the form that represents the client’s vision of the future, where the physical building with its exhibition floors presents itself to us today as an expression of the “things of the future” of future objects. In the building the ‘void’ represent us that the people who seek the unknown will continue to innovate and discover to help guide humanity towards a better future, whereby created the replenishing of the MOTF.
Giving the enormous task of envisioning this requires a lot of facts (based on current world scenarios), visions, predictions and a whole lot more to bring this into reality. We must also not forget the massive coordination of the various government organizations, the leaders visions and the mammoth infrastructure required to make this the most beautiful building in the world!….to make these visions there was required hard work and dedication, but today they have become a reality, in Dubai, UAE.
The Museum of the Future will primarily be an exhibition building, which will exhibit innovative and futuristic ideologies, services and products, with other leasable spaces for Labs, F&B’s and an Auditorium. The development has an area of 17,000 m2 torus-shaped building clad in stainless steel covered with the Arabic calligraphy about the future and displaying mankind’s passion for the arts and creating, and also follows the footprint of the Museum including the various plazas and paved public areas. The Project is located adjacent to World trade center, in Sheikh Zayed Road and making it highly visible for residences and tourist.
The 78-metre-high building accommodates 6 exhibition and 1 administration floor above a 3-storey podium and a F+B deck, with auditorium, retail, parking and services.
The Museum of the Future building was constructed using 5700MT of structural steel and includes 683 Diagrid frames with 843 nodes in the structure, Podium, Auditorium steel, two platform link bridges, a panoramic elevator, a feature staircase, and spiral staircase and Escape stair cases. The building was developed to satisfy LEED requirements and has achieved LEED Platinum accreditation. The steel structure was developed in an integrated manner through BIM at every design step, specifically using 3D Tekla Modeling to execute its execution plan.
The Project was executed between the Year 2017 and 2019
Connection Design, Material Supply, Fabrication and fabricated materials delivery, Co-ordination, Installation and Construction analysis of the Structural Steel works;
Metal Decking and Shear stud welding works.
The connection detailing and clash deduction for this structure were quite complicated, including the identification of façade bracket and other MEP work clashes. This was handled well utilizing using 3D,Tekla Structures technology, and real-time building sequences were monitored well.
Applying connection details in each nodal point, including the punch through plates in the nodes, were difficult to our modeler during the connection detail application process.
The Diagrid structure base assembly was carefully selected to form a part of the main connecting diagrids, and due to the extended cantilever members in the base diagrid, we faced challenges in keeping the assembly in position to meet the formation shape of the upper connecting main diagrid assemblies.
Providing scaffolding access to the workers was quite difficult to all the diagrid members in this building, since the circular shape constantly changed the formations of space surrounding the work areas, it is necessitated us to go with distinct scaffolding platforms in each locations. Stage-by-stage scaffolding access was detailed to meet the needs of the building, including the cup-lock system and tube and fittings approach. Building the scaffolding access to the core wall side throat portion posed significant issues for our temporary works designer and scaffolding built-up technicians, but we addressed them carefully through regular team-built workshop talks and fixed them accordingly.
To monitor structural deflection, some key points is monitored, and data are shared constantly to the designer for their subsequent evaluations and to check inline to their behavioral assessment of the structure.
A temporary tower supporting system was introduced to support the cantilever part of the structure and managed the deflections within the designer’s specified values, carefully controlled the works in phase wise using construction methodology and erection sequence (CMES) methods. After the structure is built, and according to the CMES study, the sequence of de propping is carefully followed at all phases of the proceedings to keep the building’s shape intact.
Feature staircase – The Ramps of the Stairs are the fundamental component of the steel staircase, which supports the steel spoke beams and steel stairs, all the plates of the Ramp have Twist in 3Dimensional planes. To form these shapes a specialized manufacturing facility with skilled resources was utilized for forming this shape to meet the project architectural requirements.
Spiral Staircase – Also, the spiral stairs ramps have a trapezoidal shape and are made of a built-up box portion. All the plates of the ramp have twist in three-dimensional planes. Link Bridge Installation The connecting bridges were installed with limited space, within the entrance podium, and carefully handled to place the job into positions. Panoramic Lift: Within the limited space the panoramic lift was installed and its challenged our surveyors to maintain it straightness to meet the lift frame requirements.
The structure’s unique design, including a circular steel pipe’s diagrid assembly with a glass panel structure fashioned with Arabic calligraphy, has resulted in the diagrid structures being classified as architecturally exposed structural steel (AESS). Extra care was taken during fabrication and erection stages, as well as during shipment of diagrid assemblies. Also, care was taken to avoid blemishes and unwanted surface appearance when handling the steel and removed the temporary braces and fixtures, welds are ground smoothed for those AESS areas to maintain the aesthetic appearance. Much care was given during site paint touch-up applications and uniformity of top color and smoothness had been maintained. It has challenged us to maintain the exterior sight lines and lighting color consistent, including for the shaded area steel pipes.
