ACCIONA Cultura has completed the exhibition implementation of four pavilions of the Al Shindagha Museum in Dubai: Traditions, Life on the Land, Traditional Food House, and House of Poetry.
Dubai Municipality (DM) selected ACCIONA Cultura to carry out the partial design, technical development and museographic implementation of four stages of the exhibition project, which comprises 17 clustered historic houses covering a total exhibition area of 7,980 m2.
Al Shindagha Museum is a new world class heritage museum in the Dubai Historic District that promotes the city’s historical, artistic and cultural heritage using the most innovative technologies. Al Shindagha is the area where the Al Maktoum ruling family of Dubai originally lived. The historic houses have been reconstructed using authentic methods by the DM Architectural Heritage and Antiquities Department in order to respect the original construction as much as possible.
Covering an area of 35,000 m2, Al Shindagha Museum will display more large collections with pieces of great historical and cultural value in an authentic context.
The museum is divided into several themed pavilions made up of clustered historic houses. Each pavilion focuses on a different topic relating to Dubai’s history and culture, within a number of overarching themes. The Traditions, Life on the Land, Traditional Food House, and House of Poetry pavilions have been developed and implemented entirely by ACCIONA Cultura. The Traditional Food House and House of Poetry have been designed by ACCIONA Cultura, and Traditions and Life on the Land pavilions are based on the design by Ralph Appelbaum Associates.
The museum project combines the most innovative experiential, participatory and interactive technologies through multisensory and immersive video installations and projection mapping, together with traditional objects and informative graphics.
Traditions
The Traditions pavilion at Shindagha Museum includes four houses dedicated to different traditions in Emirati culture, covering an exhibition area of 2,950 m2. Each house has a different traditional theme: the Traditional Craft House, the Traditional Beauty & Adornment House, the Traditional Jewellery House (above )and the Traditional Healthcare House.
The four houses combine the richness of Dubai’s cultural heritage with the use of modern technologies. The AV productions record testimonies of the former way of life in the Emirate while interactive displays convey how the artefacts were made and used in the past.
Life on the Land
The Life on the Land pavilion covers an exhibition area of 3,280 m2 comprising 10 houses and a garden. The exhibition focuses on the different land environments in the UAE – desert, coast and mountain – and how Emiratis used and shared natural resources to thrive and build communities. The exhibition is contextualised in seven main themes: The Land, Expressions, Water, Flora and Fauna, Trade, Journeys, and Landscape Garden.
Traditional Food House
The Traditional Food House covers an exhibition area of 450 m2 full of wonders exhibition. The visitor will experience and learn that eating is a way of keeping the heritage and history alive, with most Emirati dishes having their own fascinating story.
Food is integral to family and community life in the UAE and, because of the scarcity of food in the past, there is great value placed on food and people as hosts for guests and the consumption of food, which has evolved into an elegant system of ritual and hospitality around food.
House of Poetry
The House of Poetry includes a dynamic and inspiring exhibition of 1,300 m2 that demonstrates the importance of the poetry in Emirati life. It also emphasizes on how poetry highlighted many important political, social, financial, and even personal topics and on how the impact of poetry did change the history in the country. Content focuses on Emirati Poetry, but broadens its scope to the wider Gulf and International by the five main themes considered “Introduction to Poetry world”, “Emirati Poetry”, “Gulf Poetry”, “Arab Poetry” and “Universal Poetry”.
