Etihad Museum

Photographs by Darren Bradley

Top: Etihad Museum, Moriyama and Teshima Architects, 2017

Bottom: Ministers’ Building (reconstructed), Etihad Museum, Moriyama & Teshima Architects, 2017

Built in 2016 on the site where the Unification Agreement was signed in 1971, the Etihad Museum complex connects three reconstructed historic buildings—the Ministers’ Building, Guest House, and The Union House—with a museum dedicated to the formation of the UAE. Spread over an area of 149,000 square feet, the Etihad Museum has a façade that mimics the shape of a manuscript, with the seven leaning columns representing the pens of the seven sheikhs who signed the Unification Agreement. These columns divide the underground museum into eight galleries, which encircle The Union House aboveground. The museum creates a cohesive built landscape that is finished with a reflecting pool and sandy beachfront, which pay homage to the 1971 shoreline of Jumeirah Beach.