Hoyamal – A Marine Cultural City

The project is a marine cultural city which includes different sea related functions and activities inspired by the long history of the UAE with the marine life; the name of the project itself, ‘Hoyamal’, is taken from a traditional chant that the old fishermen and pearl divers used to sing in the Gulf area. The main components of the project are a maritime museum, an aquarium, a research center, an edutainment center, and a fishing academy. It also includes an auditorium, laboratories, classrooms, and workshops.

The project is designed to have five different buildings for different functions. It is located in Mina Zayed area and is connecting two sides of the land with some of the volumes floating on the sea surface connected by a number of bridges. The main access to the building is a ramp through a shaded courtyard on the basement level. The most convenient way for visitors to go back to the first building was to design a cable car track that is supported on the floating masses to be used as a shortcut. The aquarium has a cylindrical shape with a circular ramp so the visitors can flow around it to see it completely and move to the higher level.

A journey through past and future:

•  – Cultural Identity:

The galleries will start by showing the old and traditional exhibits of Abu Dhabi like the traditional dhows, fish skeletons, and the old fishing and pearling methods.

•  – Gradual Floor Levels:

The project will be comprised of multiple masses. Each mass will have a different height, and they are connected through bridges.

•  – Circulation:

The circulation in the building will be a journey-like one, moving through gallery sections from an era to another to reach the modern times at the end.

•  – Innovation:

The design studies the possibilities of having floating structures and how to connect them to two sides of the land.

•  – Modularity:

The whole project is designed according to a cubic basic modular unit, which can be seen in the plan, the top view, the structure, the facade, the shading roof, and the landscape.

•  – Sustainability:

The project includes a huge courtyard to allow the natural light from all sides. A parametric shading canopy is covering the building to minimize the heat and the direct sunlight. The façade of the buildings is covered with shading screens.

•  – Use of Technology:

Technology can be found in the use of hologram and high-tech futuristic exhibitions. It can also be seen through the dependence on the cable car as an innovative mode of transport.