Dubai Opens doors to World's Most Beautiful Building 'Museum of Future'

Dubai’s Museum of the Future, billed as the world’s most beautiful structure, opened on Tuesday.

The museum is a seven-story hollow silver elliptical with Arabic calligraphy phrases from Dubai’s ruler adorning the walls. It is prominently displayed on Sheikh Zayed Road, the city’s major thoroughfare.

In the evening, a colorful laser light show illuminated the building’s spectacular front, drawing throngs outside to catch a glance.

It was later inaugurated by Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, whose vision of the future is recognized as the museum’s driving force. While the museum’s contents are yet to be unveiled, organizers say it will feature design and technology advancements that will take visitors on a “journey to the year 2071.”

Ahead of its spectacular launch, roadside billboards proclaimed the museum the “most beautiful building on Earth,” despite its proximity to the world’s tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa. It is the latest addition to the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) collection of showy architecture, and it comes after the USD 7-billion Expo international exhibition, which opened on the outskirts of Dubai on September 30 and featured a swath of futuristic designs.

Another iconic design in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi is a branch of France’s Louvre museum, whose license was extended by a decade to 2047 last year at a cost of 165 million euros (USD 186 million).

Before Covid, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which was inaugurated by French President Emmanuel Macron in late 2017, had attracted roughly two million visitors in its first two years. The United Arab Emirates is a major oil exporter, but it is also a key player in commerce, trade, transportation, and tourism, diversifying its economy to minimize its reliance on petroleum.