Seaweed for bags, coconut for building materials: See the futuristic sustainable solutions at Dubai’s Museum of the Future

Dubai: The Museum of the Future (MOTF) has announced it is collaborating with Dubai Municipality to anticipate future technologies across sectors that will contribute to humanity’s development. The sectors include sustainable construction, smart cities and food security.

Under the partnership, the technologies are being showcased at the museum’s ‘Tomorrow Today’ exhibition. The ongoing exhibition identifies cutting-edge technologies that can shape future areas such as urban planning and development, including sustainable construction innovations and materials.

Some of the technologies are geared towards creating suitable urban spaces and smart agriculture to optimise space usage and enhance food security. The Tomorrow Today exhibition, which is 700 square feet and features a large range of exhibits, is the result of dozens of partnerships.

Dawood Abdulrahman Al Hajri, director general of Dubai Municipality said: “The strategic partnership between Dubai Municipality and the Museum of the Future creates a platform to learn about the most creative and innovative ideas around foreseeing the future of smart cities and advanced technology. By focusing on Dubai Municipality’s key sectors, including smart city planning, sustainable construction, 3D printing, and urban food security, we aim to consolidate the position of Dubai as a city of the future.”

Al Hajri added: “The new partnership represents an opportunity to discuss future solutions and technologies to support vital sectors, as well as to improve the quality of life and happiness of humanity, which is a focus of future cities. It also enhances Dubai’s leadership in anticipating the future and developing strategic plans to build its foundations for the next generation.”

Forecasting future of urban communities

Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), the institution behind the museum, said: “MOTF is taking the initiative to shape a better future for humanity; this is what the Tomorrow Today exhibition showcases. Our partnership with Dubai Municipality reaffirms Dubai’s position as a pioneer in foresight that aims to improve societies in line with its role as a platform for global collaboration and forecasting. We are delighted to welcome many elite global institutions, bright minds, and innovations to the Tomorrow Today exhibition to help showcase potential solutions to global challenges and build a better future for humanity.”

He added: “Through its experiences and events, MOTF supports individuals and organisations in shaping comprehensive and ambitious perceptions about the future. It also inspires people to take essential steps to build the future they aspire to, by effecting positive changes on the personal and societal levels, along with showcasing a range of technological innovations and promising ideas that are expected to shape the next decade.”

Sustainable environment

The Future Today Exhibition, in cooperation with the Dubai Municipality, presents future innovations that address the challenges that the planet faces through mitigating pollution, reducing and managing waste, and promoting sustainable practices. These practices include carbon capture systems in future homes, mobile waste containers in future cities, scaling biodegradable plastics technology, and testing artificial reef structures across bodies of water in and around urban communities. The practices cover five key areas: waste management, environment, food security, agriculture and irrigation, and city planning.

Advanced materials and smart urban agriculture

The Tomorrow Today exhibition, sponsored by Dubai Municipality, displays environmentally-friendly future construction innovations, including building materials made from coconut fibre waste, or based on mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, as well as 3D-printing construction techniques using sand, moss, gravel and clay. It also showcases promising applications that enable individuals to master the open interior design of future homes using advanced technology.

The displays embrace cutting-edge techniques for vertical farming in future cities and urban communities without the need for agricultural land. This shortens future cities’ supply chains by providing a large portion of their daily agricultural needs, while enhancing food productivity, and bolstering food security for individuals and societies.

Meaningful innovations

The “Tomorrow Today” exhibition is divided into several sections, each of which presents prototypes and solutions designed to meet specific challenges in the cities and societies of the future, some of the innovations and exhibits featured include:

Autonomous Waste Collection Boat

This solution demonstrates how autonomous driving technology can be used to transform our cities and waterways. Autonomous waste collection boats can extend to creating on-demand infrastructure for waste collection and freight transport.

Carbon Capture System

The carbon capture system showcased in the exhibition was developed to store carbon dioxide as a solid metal. Carbon dioxide is mixed with water then injected into rocks deep underground and turned into basalt rocks to be permanently isolated. It is an innovative solution to reduce the increasing amount of carbon dioxide produced by humans, thus ensuring a brighter future for the planet.

Plastic Alternative

The exhibit features a solution that provides an opportunity to eliminate the need for plastic packaging by offering a robust and fully biodegradable alternative to plastics. This alternative is made using a brown seaweed structure and was proposed to replace single-use plastic packaging in the future.

Modular Artificial Reef Structures (MARS)

Modular Artificial Reef Structures (MARS) are made from ceramics and 3D-printed to create a reef habitat without the need for heavy-duty equipment. MARS can be used in conjunction with coral farming and reef restoration projects.

Vertical farming

A short film that explores the latest in vertical farming technologies and speculates how advanced systems and technologies will impact farming to help feed 10 billion people by 2050.

Unique building panels

Structural tiles made from a variety of plant materials are displayed with the aim of promoting the concept of sustainability in building construction and encouraging the use of environmentally friendly alternative materials.

3D-printed sand

This installation utilises 3D-printed sand that allows the growth of moss within the architecture. This art piece aims to promote the connection between architecture and nature, while simultaneously providing a healthy livelihood for humans.

Recycled tiles

These complex tiles are made by slowly drying mycelium grown out of digesting agro-industrial waste. These tiles create a 100% plastic-free, circular, and biodegradable material with acoustic properties.

Rammed earth tiles

Rammed Earth tiles are made by compacting a damp subsoil with sand, gravel, and clay, into the desired formwork. This traditional system has widely evolved to meet today’s building standards, representing an accessible and sustainable alternative with low embodied energy, and producing little waste.

AR experience

A film and AR-based model explores the relationship between residents and the idea of an open plan house, while also covering the key criteria of smart living that shape human comfort, health, and wellbeing.

Diverse presentation tools

The Future Today Exhibition, hosted on MOTF’s second floor, explores how technology can shape the future and address challenges facing the planet and our society, today and tomorrow. The Exhibition uses diverse display tools that invite visitors to explore future opportunities, through prototypes, experiments, interactive exhibits, short introductory films, and actual models; thus, presenting a comprehensive view for the exhibition’s visitors of what the next decade will look like.

The Museum of the Future is a new space in the heart of Dubai that provides an engaging experience through various exhibitions. MOTF rises 77 meters above the ground and features 1,024 unique steel panels. MOTF was designed to be an immersive and large-scale experience, encouraging visitors to form their own perceptions about the future.