Dubai’s Museum of the Future turns one, here are its key milestones

Dubai’s Museum of the Future has seen more than a million visitors, from 163 countries, visit the iconic destination a year since it opened.

The museum, standing at 77 metres high and extending over an area of 30,000 square metres, was designed to be an engineering marvel that connects the past to the future, featuring an architectural aesthetic that reinvented the concept of traditional museums to appeal to “future-curious” visitors from around the world.

Mohammad Al Gergawi, chairman of the Museum of the Future, said: “We pledged that the Museum of the Future would host one million visitors in its first year, and today we celebrate the achievement of this target and the launch of a new year for the museum, during which we will continue to design the future for a better world for all in the coming years and decades.”

He stated that the Museum of the Future has bolstered Dubai’s global position as one of the top cities of the future while reflecting a successful global model that proves that cities of the future can employ and implement technological transformations to serve their societies. He added that the museum sends an important message from the UAE to the world, that the future requires more positive collaboration and action for the benefit of future generations.

Read: Dubai’s Museum of the Future named among the world’s 14 most beautiful museums

Highlights of the Museum of the Future

• Since opening, the museum – an initiative by the Dubai Future Foundation – has hosted more than 180 local, regional and global activations, events, conferences and forums, covering technology, entrepreneurship, economy, space, tourism, culture and varied futurist-specific sectors, according to the Duba Media Office.
• More than 1,000 international dignitaries, ministers, officials and experts visited the museum throughout the past year, including around 20 heads of government and official delegations from South Korea, Estonia, Luxembourg, China, Greece, Hong Kong, Thailand and Rwanda and Mauritius, among others.

A global hub for futurists, we celebrate 1 year of inspiring the world.#MuseumOfTheFuture #MOTF pic.twitter.com/69CWQwVAHQ

— Museum of the Future (@MOTF) February 21, 2023

• The Museum of the Future has won ten international awards from global institutions and specialized industry magazines for its museum content quality, future sciences, and architectural design, in addition to attaining the LEED Platinum status certification – the ultimate certificate of recognition a building can obtain for sustainable and environmentally friendly design, construction, and operation.
• During the past year, the Museum of the Future hosted many heads and representatives of international institutions and organisations. The museum also led global discussions through the ‘Future Talks’ series, with each session highlighting, discussing and exploring humanity’s latest discoveries as well as those yet to come. ‘Future Talks’ hosted some of the most prominent visionaries and thought leaders in the world.
• During the 2022 edition of the Dubai Future Forum, the Dubai Future Foundation signed cooperation agreements with the World Futures Studies Federation, The Millennium Project and the Public Sector Foresight Network, among other entities.
• The museum has emerged as a centre for futurists across various sectors in the region and the world, becoming a comprehensive testbed for testing and developing emerging technologies and ideas.
•  Across its several floors, the museum uses advanced technologies to depict the future. A distinguishing feature, the museum’s elevator, is a crucial part of the museum’s journey-based narrative, with a simulation of OSS Hope – the museum’s very own spaceship – to help guests learn about potential life aboard a space station. The experience introduces visitors to the exciting concept of visiting space in the near future, as well as a reimagined landscape of Dubai and the world in the year 2071 through efforts made in restoring the natural ecosystem and sustainability of the planet’s resources.
• The museum employs the latest technologies of the future, such as artificial intelligence, and interaction between humans and machines, to launch meaningful dialogues that motivate visitors to draw their own perceptions about the future.