Etihad Museum focuses on the history leading to the 1971 unification of the seven emirates that today form the UAE. Located on an historically important site, much of the museum is 9.5 metres underground and reached by gently sloping floors or sculptural stairways; numerous lightwells bring daylight to the lower galleries and collections. The two-floor entrance pavilion rises from a travertine-paved plaza and is a parametric-designed envelope of glass fibre-reinforced polymer; design and construction of the floating cantilever required innovations in the steel super-structure and in cladding assemblies. The primary glazed façade is an integral part of the structure, and structural glass columns make this the world’s first sloping glass-fin façade.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture
