The museum is housed in the old Expo Live Pavilion built for Expo 2020 Dubai. The building has 475sqm of usable space spread across two floors: 250 ground floor, 225 top floor. Empty’s brief consisted in stripping out the existing Expo Live exhibition and producing and installing the new exhibition.
The designer for the project was the SevillebasedIcaria Atelier. All the MEP systems in the building had to be adjusted for the new architectural design. The works on the top floor consisted in refurbishing the space previously used as a conference room to turn it into a library, retail area and offices, while retaining the capacity for use as a reception and presentation space for groups of visitors.
On the ground floor, the exhibition puts visitors in the context of world expos, starting with the first one held in London in 1851 and highlighting the UAE’s experience in this long tradition: from how it won the bid to host Expo 2020 and organised the event to what it plans to do with Expo City. Empty installed three self-supporting walls with 17 integrated fibre glass and acrylic display cases made locally in the UAE. The exhibition walls were lined with acrylic panels onto which graphics and texts were printed. Four of these acrylic wall panels are used as projection surfaces. Empty’s artefact team made and installed all the mounts. The playful atmosphere of the exhibition is enhanced by the EPDM rubber flooring that simulates the local sand dune topography and the AV productions generate an immersive experience that transports visitors back to the main events of Expo 2020 Dubai.
The accessibility adaptation of the space was also part of Empty’s brief and consisted in implementing a tactile map and scale model, a NaviLens system for the visually impaired and hearing loops for people with hearing aids.
