Our exhibit at museum of the future explored how materials that swell, contract, and communicate can reshape how buildings regulate themselves. Drawing from Dubai’s histories of trade, tide, and sand, we ask how, in arid climates, architecture might learn from its own ground to build new pasts and more agile futures.

We’re excited to share and exhibit this research during Dubai Future Week and the Dubai Future Forum, with dubai future and fatma almahmoud. The Dubai Future Forum, hosted annually, brings together futurists, foresight practitioners, thought leaders, and experts from across sectors to anticipate challenges, imagine opportunities, and shape long-term futures. It has been especially fascinating to meet leading experts across such vast fields, from archaeologists and urbanists to geneticists exploring radical cures for disease, technologists, and policymakers; to situate soft-matter architecture within wider conversations on the futures of cities, health, and society.