Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to Open on Saadiyat Island in 2025

After nearly two decades in development, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is scheduled to open in 2025, marking a transformative moment for the United Arab Emirates’ cultural landscape.

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be the largest in the global Guggenheim network, surpassing the size of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The 42,000-square-metre building is located on Saadiyat Island, where it is partially surrounded by the Arabian Gulf. The museum’s site also functions as a constructed breakwater, offering protection to the island’s northern beach.

Gehry’s design features a combination of plaster-clad blocks and translucent, self-cooling cones — drawing inspiration from industrial studio spaces while responding to the region’s environmental conditions. The gallery layout moves away from traditional linear museum plans, instead offering a series of diverse spaces with varied heights and configurations. This flexible arrangement is intended to accommodate a wide range of artworks, from small-scale installations to large, immersive works.

Circulation through the building is structured around catwalks and a central covered courtyard, linking the galleries while allowing each to maintain its spatial identity. Additional vertically stacked galleries extend above these core pathways, creating a combination of horizontal and vertical display environments.

Beyond its exhibition spaces, the museum will include facilities such as a centre for art and technology, a children's education area, archives, a library, and a conservation laboratory. Its collection will focus on contemporary art from the 1960s to the present, with a particular emphasis on work from the Middle East. Site-specific commissions will also form part of the museum’s curatorial strategy. The Guggenheim joins other major cultural projects on Saadiyat Island, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel, the Zayed National Museum by Foster + Partners, and a performing arts centre designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. These developments reflect Abu Dhabi’s long-term plan to establish itself as a hub for culture and the arts.