Guggenheim Abu Dhabi - Design and Construction

Design and Construction

The museum's design is by architect Frank Gehry. The lighting was designed by L'Observatoire International. The building is part of a massive project on Saadiyat Island to "create an exhibition space intended to turn this once-sleepy desert city along the Persian Gulf into an international arts capital and tourist destination." The museum is under construction on a peninsula at the northwestern tip of Saadiyat Island adjacent to Abu Dhabi. Surrounded on three sides by the Persian Gulf, the site also acts as a manmade breakwater that protects the island’s northern beaches. Gehry noted, "The landscape, the opportunity, the requirement ... and the possible resource to accomplish it opened tracks that were not likely to be considered anywhere else. The site itself, virtually on the water or close to the water on all sides, in a desert landscape with the beautiful sea and the light quality of the place suggested some of the direction."

The museum is planned, at 320,000 square feet (30,000 m2), to be the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's largest facility. It is designed to accommodate approximately 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) of exhibition space. Gehry's design features exhibition galleries, education and research space, a conservation laboratory, a center for contemporary Arab, Islamic and Middle Eastern culture, and a center for "art and technology". Inspired by traditional middle-eastern covered courtyards and wind towers, used to cool structures exposed to the desert sun, the museum's clusters of horizontal and vertical galleries of various sizes are connected by catwalks and planned around a central, covered courtyard, incorporating natural features intended to maximize the energy efficiency of the building. The largest galleries will offer a grand scale for the display of large contemporary art installations. Parts of the building will be four storeys tall with galleries stacked atop each other. The museum is intended to be a centerpiece in the island's plan for contemporary art and culture".

The completion date was pushed back from 2011 to 2013 to 2015, after the emirate cancelled contracts with concrete suppliers, and again to 2017 "amid more difficult economic times". The museum is expected to house modern and contemporary collections that will focus on Middle-Eastern contemporary art. It will also display special exhibitions from the foundation's main collection.