Work has officially begun on the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim, which will be built on Saadiyat Island in the Persian Gulf, famous for housing some of the city’s most modern buildings. The museum will be built right next to the already famous Louvre in Abu Dhabi, forming a sort of museum district. 

The project was entrusted to Frank Gehry back in 2006. Since then, work has been delayed and rescheduled until a few days ago, during a conference, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation Richard Armstrong confirmed that work will begin shortly and that the museum will open in 2026. 

The building will be on four different levels connected by glass bridges and the spaces will occupy an area of about 30,000 square metres with a total of 13,000 square metres of exhibition space. The design includes different plaster blocks interspersed with eleven cone-shaped structures with reflective surfaces. 

This division of space will allow curators to organise different exhibitions, divided between the various galleries formed by the cone-shaped structures, but also to use the different areas as an educational centre and a theatre with a capacity of 350 seats where conferences, projections, performances and shows can be organised.

Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi reflects in all its splendour the mood of the city and the style of the famous architect.