The Dubai Future Accelerators program was born in 2017. In 2018, we were asked to transform the space to be utilized more effectively and efficiently in order to spark collaboration between individuals, startups and government entities. Being a formal mall, most of the spaces were not fit for its now-intended purpose and empty for most of the time. Our challenge was to re-design the space whilst considering user experience and community activation initiatives. The project kicked off in 2019.

Looking from a community-first perspective, we dove deep into the diverse user groups’ mindsets, and designed purposefully for spaces and interactions that would achieve the desired collaborations.

Whilst designing the open desks, silent zones, rooms, kitchens, and meeting areas, we strived to create areas that would produce spontaneous engagements between users of the space, essentially creating micro-communities of people who might come together in unexpected collaborations that would not be able to take place otherwise.