Dates to be confirmed

Culture of the Sea

Dubai's maritime heart, across four houses

The largest and, by the museum's own account, most important pavilion — a four-building complex designed by the studio Empty within a former residential cluster. It traces Dubai's relationship with the sea across a maritime history reaching back some 7,000 years, structured as a journey: from the discovery of the Gulf's marine environment and its biological riches, through the principal seafaring activities — dhow building (the traditional vessel of the Gulf and the wider Indian Ocean), fishing, pearling and maritime trade — and finally to the seafaring community itself. The exhibition centres on the early twentieth century, when Dubai sat at the heart of the pearl trade, and on the human cost of that economy: how families endured as dhows took men away for months or years at a time, and how the sea shaped the local food culture. Recorded human stories run throughout, and interactive simulations and a VR feature let visitors experience pearl diving, fishing and boat construction first-hand. Empty drew the design directly from the materials, objects and natural environment of the seafaring tradition, keeping the human figure present in every setting.

Al Shindagha Museum