Al Fayah Park


Useful Information

Location: Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Street, Abu Dhabi
Open: Not existing.
[2024]
Fee: Not existing.
[2024]
Classification: Underground park
Light: n/a
Dimension: Ar=125,000 m², VR=20 m.
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: wheelchair accessible
Bibliography:
Address:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

2014 construction publicly announced.
2017 scheduled for completion.
2018 project stopped.

Description

The Al Fayah Park is not underground, it is a normal park located in the middle of Abu Dhabi. Located south of the airport across the motorway it is also known as Old Airport Park. It is quite dull with a little short grass (which is exceptional in the desert) and some palm trees. It’s not underground, so why do we list it? This listing is about the spectacular underground park which was planned for this place but never realized!

The design of the park was created by the famous London-based design studio Heatherwick. In 2014, it was widely published with the goal to be built during the next years. Scheduled start was 2015 and completion 2017 or 2018. However, it never happened, this site is still only an idea. We decided to keep this page as there are still numerous sites with pictures and pinterest is also full of them. Just be aware that this was never even started, and in 2018 the project was officially stopped.

The planned park would have been quite exceptional. Actually, every park in the world is artificial, the result of the work of many gardeners. This one is even more artificial as it is located in the United Arab Emirates, a desert country with almost no rain and a burning sun. To protect the plants from the burning sun and preserve some humidity, the idea was to place it underground. So this would have been the only park in the world which is underground. The whole park would have been 20 m below ground in a huge pit, and it would have been almost completely covered by concrete plates. Those plates would each have been placed on top of a column, looking like huge mushrooms from below. What remains on the surface is a central gap, like a 20 m deep canyon with plants on the ground. The surrounding surface resembles the patterns created by drying soil, which cracks because it shrinks with the water loss.