Of all of the rich traditions and cultural symbols from which we could draw inspiration, the exquisite, uniquely shaped and crafted 'container' that is the traditional Writing Case emerged as a powerful metaphor to symbolize the centrality of 'Knowledge and Ideas' to the life and rule of His Highness Sheikh Zayed, and to the unification, evolution and prosperity of the UAE nation.
The form we gave to the principal museum programme is an apparently simple box: long and slender, proportioned to the writing case. To adorn our metaphoric Writing Case we drew inspiration from the artful Islamic geometries prevalent in Bedouin jewelry, and the breathtaking colors of the "Seven Sands of the Emirates" to compose an extraordinary ceramic tiled facade. A dramatic canopy element that is folded protectively over the Museum, is the symbolic scribe's parchment: a canvass partly etched to record the past, and partly blank to invite untold possibilities for the future....more
