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MiZa - MAKE + SEAF
MiZa - MAKE + SEAF
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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Other Projects by DRAW architecture + urban design
MiZa - MAKE + SEAF
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2025
SIZE
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft
SITE MEMORY
Mina Zayed is one of Abu Dhabi’s most historically and commercially significant districts. Established in the early 1970s, it served as the emirate’s primary port, playing a pivotal role in maritime trade and the economic transformation of the UAE.
In its heyday, Mina Zayed was a bustling center of commerce, home to shipping operations, wholesale markets, and the iconic fish market. It also supported key industries such as ship repair, anchoring it firmly within the capital’s industrial fabric. The area’s vibrant souks and open-air markets became woven into everyday life, offering a lively mix of fresh produce, spices, textiles, and crafts that attracted both locals and tourists.
With the development of newer, more modern ports, Mina Zayed fell out of use and was mostly abandoned.
Today, however, it is undergoing a thoughtful revitalization while honoring its history. Initiatives like MAKE + SEAF are transforming disused warehouses into creative spaces for entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural innovators. Through mixed-use developments, galleries, cafés, and co-working hubs, Mina Zayed is being reimagined as a dynamic urban district—one where commerce, culture, and community intersect against a backdrop of rich maritime heritage.
SITE CONTEXT
The MIZA community is made of utilitarian warehouse structures characterized by low-pitched gabled roofs. These buildings adhere to a consistent architectural rhythm, exhibiting minimal variation in form and collectively establishing a unified visual and structural typology for the area. Constructed from modest materials, their design reflects a pragmatic approach rooted in function over form.
DESIGN INTENT
Drawing upon the region’s warehouse vernacular, this new-build project artfully reinterprets its industrial surroundings. A continuous datum line, borrowed from neighboring structures, delineates a robust concrete stucco base from the corrugated metal upper volume, enabling the building to harmonize with its context. Strategically placed glazing interrupts the façade to provide natural light and views to the interior spaces.
Two programs are housed inside. SEAF, an artist’s fellowship, aims to identify and nurture emerging artists in the UAE and provide them with artistic and technical knowledge and professional skills. The program works to establish a more connected community of emerging artists in the UAE and encourage graduate studies in the arts.
MAKE operates as a makerspace studio, a collaborative environment that brings together entrepreneurs, designers, artists, DIY enthusiasts, and learners. Rooted in the principles of the maker movement, it provides a flexible space for individuals across a spectrum of creative and technical proficiency to engage in hands-on, iterative design and fabrication
At its core, a pavilion springs from a slice in the rhythm of five conjoined warehouse bays separating the two programmatic elements. This pavilion is lifted and rotated, both to align with prevailing winds and to add shade to a central courtyard that enhances passive ventilation and daylight control. The pavilion’s solar responsive fins articulate a dialogue with the sun’s path, offering shade and movement.
This pivoting, elevated pavilion acts as a poetic counterpoint to the orthogonal warehouse forms—a visual and functional embodiment of the creative energy now permeating the district. It bridges the utilitarian past and the imaginative future, celebrating both the legacy of industrial typology and its contemporary reinterpretation.
Mina Zayed is one of Abu Dhabi’s most historically and commercially significant districts. Established in the early 1970s, it served as the emirate’s primary port, playing a pivotal role in maritime trade and the economic transformation of the UAE.
In its heyday, Mina Zayed was a bustling center of commerce, home to shipping operations, wholesale markets, and the iconic fish market. It also supported key industries such as ship repair, anchoring it firmly within the capital’s industrial fabric. The area’s vibrant souks and open-air markets became woven into everyday life, offering a lively mix of fresh produce, spices, textiles, and crafts that attracted both locals and tourists.
With the development of newer, more modern ports, Mina Zayed fell out of use and was mostly abandoned.
Today, however, it is undergoing a thoughtful revitalization while honoring its history. Initiatives like MAKE + SEAF are transforming disused warehouses into creative spaces for entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural innovators. Through mixed-use developments, galleries, cafés, and co-working hubs, Mina Zayed is being reimagined as a dynamic urban district—one where commerce, culture, and community intersect against a backdrop of rich maritime heritage.
SITE CONTEXT
The MIZA community is made of utilitarian warehouse structures characterized by low-pitched gabled roofs. These buildings adhere to a consistent architectural rhythm, exhibiting minimal variation in form and collectively establishing a unified visual and structural typology for the area. Constructed from modest materials, their design reflects a pragmatic approach rooted in function over form.
DESIGN INTENT
Drawing upon the region’s warehouse vernacular, this new-build project artfully reinterprets its industrial surroundings. A continuous datum line, borrowed from neighboring structures, delineates a robust concrete stucco base from the corrugated metal upper volume, enabling the building to harmonize with its context. Strategically placed glazing interrupts the façade to provide natural light and views to the interior spaces.
Two programs are housed inside. SEAF, an artist’s fellowship, aims to identify and nurture emerging artists in the UAE and provide them with artistic and technical knowledge and professional skills. The program works to establish a more connected community of emerging artists in the UAE and encourage graduate studies in the arts.
MAKE operates as a makerspace studio, a collaborative environment that brings together entrepreneurs, designers, artists, DIY enthusiasts, and learners. Rooted in the principles of the maker movement, it provides a flexible space for individuals across a spectrum of creative and technical proficiency to engage in hands-on, iterative design and fabrication
At its core, a pavilion springs from a slice in the rhythm of five conjoined warehouse bays separating the two programmatic elements. This pavilion is lifted and rotated, both to align with prevailing winds and to add shade to a central courtyard that enhances passive ventilation and daylight control. The pavilion’s solar responsive fins articulate a dialogue with the sun’s path, offering shade and movement.
This pivoting, elevated pavilion acts as a poetic counterpoint to the orthogonal warehouse forms—a visual and functional embodiment of the creative energy now permeating the district. It bridges the utilitarian past and the imaginative future, celebrating both the legacy of industrial typology and its contemporary reinterpretation.
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