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Culture Village to house museum of modern art

The centrepiece of Dubai Properties' Dh50 billion Culture Village project is the Middle East Museum of Modern Art (Memoma) - the region's first culture museum.

  • By Suzanne Fenton, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:13 October 9, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • The centrepiece of Dubai Properties' Dh50 billion Culture Village is the Middle East Museum of Modern Art.
  • Image Credit: Supplied picture
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Dubai: The centrepiece of Dubai Properties' Dh50 billion Culture Village project is the Middle East Museum of Modern Art (Memoma) - the region's first culture museum.

Based on the silhouette of an Arabian dhow, the museum will be on an island of its own in the middle of Culture Village, on Dubai Creek. It will be connected by roads, including two pedestrian bridges.

The museum could attract around two million visitors every year.

Construction for the museum is likely to start in eight months.

The total built-up area of Memoma will be 438,592 square feet. Visitors will also be able to stand on the terrace areas on the roof of the museum and have a bird's-eye-view of the entire Culture Village.

At one end of the museum will be a 60-room hotel.

The total value of Memoma is not yet known. However, the Guggenheim museum in New York cost $50 million (Dh183.9 million) to build in 1997.

All-round experience

There will also be restaurants and retail space so that visitors can enjoy an all-round experience at this first "hybrid museum", according to the principal architect, Ben van Berkel, who is also the co-founder of Holland-based UN Studio.

There could also be up to 14,000 square metres of exhibition space available in the building. Ahmad Bukhash, the principal architect of Injaz, the property development arm of Dubai Properties, said the modern design of the museum was done specifically to contrast the overall traditional feel of Culture Village.

"His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, wanted the museum to cater to the modern art of the Middle East," Bukhash said.

"It will take, maybe, six months to finish the design, then we will release the tender. So in perhaps seven to eight months, construction will start," Bukhash said.

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