Museum of the Future in Dubai.
In front of you is a bizarre building - the Museum of the Future. The facade consists of 1024 plates and it took a year and a half just to install it. On the facade in Arabic are written the statements of the current Dubai Sheikh Mohammed about the future.
"The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it and build it. The future does not wait, it can be realized today," you would read it if you knew Arabic.
The building is designed by Sean Keil and has already been named one of the top ten most beautiful museums in the world. There are seven floors inside, each with parts of an exhibit on the potential development of technology in the next 20 years.
Here you'll see innovations that could expand human physical and intellectual capabilities, the greatest inventions and promising prototypes of technological solutions.
At Museum of the Future, you'll be able to interact with exhibits through interactive displays, chat with robots, and ride in some space capsule elevators.
In 2016, the Dubai government established the Future Foundation, which is tasked with developing and introducing technology to the city. For this purpose, the Dubai Future District was laid out in the center of the city. It is within this district that this unusual museum is located.
The same location includes Emirates Towers and the new One Central office block built across the street. These buildings provide entrepreneurs launching their tech startups and participating in the Dubai Project Accelerator with offices to work in and access to investment, while the government will use these innovations and technologies to improve the city in the future.
DFD's website has a dozen case studies of startups already implemented here, with applications in medicine, transportation, education, and utilities. The most notable one for us is smart gates at the airport that let you into the country based on biometrics data without physical border guards.
Let's take a look inside. The adventure begins with a dive into the spaceship, which is actually an elevator. With a groovy show, it discreetly takes all participants to the top floor where the tour begins.
The first location is the orbital station OSS HOPE with a bunch of different space exhibits.
After which you return to the ground and find yourself on a floor called Heal Insitute. It's about nature and animal conservation with spectacular halls called "Digital Amazon" and "Life Lab".
The latter contains volumetric models of thousands of animals, insects and plants in special glass 3d-columns.
The next floor is Al Waha. It's about feelings and pleasures, as a counterbalance to the digital life. There's a big vibrating gong and different meditation areas.
Next up is a floor with the beautiful name Tomorrow Today, which translates to "Tomorrow Today". There are dozens of robots, gadgets and technology on display.
An unusual children's area, a cafeteria and an outdoor observation deck round out the exhibit as an opportunity to return to the reality of the present.
A ticket to the museum costs 145 derhams ($40). You need to book tickets for the desired date about two weeks in advance.