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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2010

  • Work on this object began.

2015

2017

  • Work on this object ended.

2025

  • You found it!

Al Fayah Park

This is a Al Fayah Park. It was designed by Heatherwick Studio and Thomas Heatherwick and made for (as the client) Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation. It is dated 2010–2017 (scheduled date of completion).

Can you make a park out of the desert?
Reconceiving a major public park for Abu Dhabi presented two challenges: how to shield visitors and plants from the desert sun, and how to provide sustainable irrigation. In response, the studio sought to celebrate, rather than deny, the existing landscape by raising cracked pieces of desert surface on columns to form a perforated shade canopy for a lush garden of plants and trees. This sunken oasis contains interconnected recreational spaces: cafés, playgrounds, a library, pools and streams, and community vegetable gardens. The shade reduces evaporation and thus improves energy efficiency.
The project is scheduled for completion in 2017.

It is credited Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

  • Pier55
  • Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.
  • HSP.43
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This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/85006461/ |title=Al Fayah Park |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>