ABSTRACT
The ‘Museum of the Future’ in Dubai is one of the most innovative buildings in the world, which is designed in three main parts, namely the lower green hill, the middle building, and the top elliptical void structure. As per the architectural design, the green hill is designed as a smooth transition from ground, in the form of an earthen vegetated mound which eventually should cover the embedded three-story podium structure. As a result, the green hill had to be constructed as claddings around the base structure rather than as a solid earth hill. Three different types of geosynthetic green systems were used to recreate the different slopes, which included reinforced soil for steep slopes, heavy revetement with geocells for moderate slopes, and rolled erosion control mats for gentle slopes. In most cases, the available thickness of soil layer was only 30 cm, complicating the design and construction of the geosynthetic systems. To ensure the stability of the geosynthetic green cover systems for moderate and gentle slope cases, continuous veneer reinforcement was installed below the thin soil fills, using double-twisted wire mesh netting that was anchored to the concrete structure at the top of the cover system. Due to existing space constraints, the soil reinforcement had to be anchored to the concrete structure in most of the cases for reinforced soil slopes. Additionally, a layer of geosynthetic drainage composite was installed below the entire surface area of the green cover system to enable easy drainage of the continuous irrigation water expected from the gardening activities. Through the successful case reference of the ‘Museum of the Future’ project in Dubai, this paper sheds light on the possibilities, opportunities and challenges associated with the use of sustainable geosynthetic systems in iconic projects for landscaping and architectural applications.
