Dubai Museum of the Future created with Ultimaker S5

Over the last two decades, architecture and design have evolved to the point of requiring a complete rationalization of working methods and tools.

Thus, today, the design freedom that architects enjoy thanks to advanced CAD tools and construction techniques helps them create increasingly organic, agile and dynamic designs, allowing them to push the limits of what is possible. Killa Design is one of those companies.

Based in Dubai, Killa Design focuses on unique, iconic and timeless designs: being the creators of the world’s first 3D printed office space, as well as the parents of one of the most complex structures ever built: the Museum of the Future.

Designed in 2015 and built in 2018, it represents an example of craftsmanship from both a technical and aesthetic point of view.

For the project, the engineers used Building Information Modeling (BIM), a process of developing design parameters with the help of algorithms and without which construction would not have been possible.

When tradition becomes a limit…

The museum structure consists of 2400 steel pillars that intersect diagonally. According to the architects, the solid part of the building represents humanity’s current knowledge, while the void inside the ellipse symbolizes what we do not yet know. In other words, the future.

The construction of the metal structure, called diagrid due to the diagonal positioning of the steel bars, took 14 months.

The building’s exterior will be clad in 1,024 fiberglass panels. Due to the complexity of the structure, no two panels are identical on the entire construction. They were worked continuously throughout the museum’s construction, with a maximum rate of six pieces produced per day. The development of their composition and design, as well as the production process, took about a year. So far, about 60-70% of the building’s exterior has been finished, and engineers say all the panels fit perfectly, so not the slightest modification was necessary.

The exterior of the 78 meter tall building is decorated with texts in Arabic calligraphy, believed to be poetic quotes belonging to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates. The letters will in fact be the windows of the museum and at night they will be illuminated by LEDs for a total length of 14 km.

Creating this building with an extremely complex shape was a challenge from both a design and construction point of view. This requires a full understanding of the structure and shape of the building. To achieve this, the architects at Killa Design created realistic small-scale models of all elements of the museum. Given the complexity of the Museum of the Future, traditional model-making methods proved ineffective.

And here comes the Ultimaker 5S that you find in our portfolio.

Build a reference point
The Museum of the Future is one of the initiatives of the Dubai Future Foundation, led by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. The Museum of the Future truly becomes an architectural landmark, with its 78 meters of height and the near absence of straight lines in its elliptical design.

The architects at Killa Design used 3D printed models so that, before construction began, they could explain the building’s rationale to manufacturers, builders and engineers. In addition to the external shape, the company printed cut-out models to show the basic structure of the building.

Furthermore, the Museum was 3D printed overall create a strategy to clean the facade and plan rope access. A 3D printed cross section provided a clear view of the layout of the museum’s internal space. Another section was printed to show the technology used to build the facade. Each print demonstrated that the proposed solutions to the architectural challenges were effective and possible.

The first 3D printed office building

What you see below is the headquarters of the Museum of the Future: actually 3D printed offices. The first of its kind in the world. The exterior was printed from pieces of concrete using an industrial 3D printer and assembled on site. Before starting work, Killa’s architects carried out several printing simulations so that the parameters of the final print result in a resistance imposed by the project and are sent to the Chinese company responsible for the print itself.

Using Ultimaker printers, Killa Design was able to create an energy-efficient design, perfect for Dubai’s climate, where temperatures often reach 45°C.

An… imposing challenge

Another Killa Design project is the SRG Tower, a 111-story residential skyscraper located in the heart of Dubai.

Its organic design allows for optimal climate efficiency, while the tower itself is covered in solar panels.

Two wind turbines atop the structure generate 500 million watts of peak power. Constructing a building as tall as the SSR Tower is quite an undertaking. Adding two turbines is an even bigger challenge. Killa Design needed a way to easily observe and discuss design challenges with their construction team.

Using 3D printed models of the tower, it was much easier to determine the feasibility of the external structure of the SRG tower. By analyzing the 3D printed upper part of the building, Killa Design engineers found a solution for installing the turbines.

Imagination, creation, iteration: the new architecture

To create more concepts and iterations, Killa Design uses the Ultimaker S5. This greatly helps to present and explain ideas during brainstorming sessions and significantly speeds up the design process. Thanks to Ultimaker’s dual extrusion feature, architects around the world print whatever shape they need, whenever they need it.