The Dutch firm Mecanoo, under the leadership of Francine Houben, has officially unveiled its design for a new museum currently under construction in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District. Like rock formations, it presents geometric compositions such as pentagons resembling cellular structures, covering an area of over 35,000 square meters.

The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi will be devoted to scientific research besides being a resource for schools, its collection including the dinosaur nicknamed ‘Stan,’ a 67-million-year-old, 11.7-meter-long Tyrannosaurus rex, and the meteorite Murchison, which fell to Earth 53 years ago.

The museum will rise close to Jean Nouvel’s Louvre, which opened in 2017, and other works under construction or currently on hold on Saadiyat Island, including the Zayed National Museum by Foster + Partners, the Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects, the Maritime Museum by Tadao Ando, and the Guggenheim by Frank Gehry, which has been halted several times but is supposed to open in 2025 as the new Natural History Museum.