The Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District is now open. Designed by Mecanoo, the Dutch firm led by Francine Houben, the building takes up over 35,000 square meters with its architecture of concrete inspired by the region’s rocky formations, in a composition of sculpted geometric volumes where the repetition of pentagons evokes cellular structures and acts as a unifying language inside and out.

Clad in grooved concrete panels, the museum gives visitors a walk through the 13,800 million years since the origin of the universe. Two highlights are ‘Stan,’ a Tyrannosaurus rex 11.7 meters long and 67 million years old, and Murchison, a meteorite of great scientific importance that fell on Australia.

In addition to its exhibition purpose, the museum includes facilities for research in paleontology, earth sciences, biodiversity, and conservation, consolidating itself as a hub for study and scientific dissemination. Its location reinforces the growing presence of institutions on Saadiyat Island, home also to Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel and Zayed National Museum by Foster + Partners.

Photos courtesy of Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi