Adirondack Studios (ADKS), a company that provides creative solutions for designers, artists, producers, and owners in the global entertainment industry, is marking the outstanding growth of its Dubai branch, Adirondack Studios Middle East (ADKS ME), during its first 10 years.
Situated in Dubai’s Jebel Ali District, the design, fabrication and project management facility has a team of over 100 designers, producers and craftspeople. In the last 12 months alone, its footprint has expanded by 66 per cent.
This expansion has brought additional expertise, including creative and technical design, 3D modelling, metalwork, CNC, fibreglass, scenic paint, soft goods, carpentry, shipping, site supervision, and installation.
With more than a decade of experience in the region and an international reputation for quality, ADKS ME's growth has cemented the company’s position as a key industry player, both in the Middle East and globally. Its clients include Walt Disney Imagineering, Qiddiya, and SEVEN.
As such, ADKS ME was selected by Miral, ALEC Fit-Out and the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) as a fabrication partner for the new Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi.
Complex, bespoke fabrications
With striking architecture and a 35,000-square-meter footprint, the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi is a key cultural landmark in the UAE capital. Visitors can enjoy immersive storytelling that spans 13.8 billion years, from the birth of the solar system to the future.
From a themed entertainment and museum standpoint, the project marks a milestone in technical precision and collaborative artistry. ADKS ME played a vital role in bringing these prehistoric and contemporary settings to life through intricate ground forms and custom fabrication.
Arranged across numerous galleries, the museum's narrative covers themes such as The Story of Earth, The Evolving World, and Earth’s Future.
Accompanying spaces, including the PaleoLab, the Life Sciences Lab, and an Interactive Theatre, transport guests using hyper-realistic visual experiences.
Intricate, immersive galleries
The Evolving World gallery looks at the resilience of life.
For this space, ADKS ME manufactured a 22.5-square-metre ground form that depicts shifting environments, from arid plains to verdant riverbanks. For complete authenticity, the team used 3D printing to create animal footprints that perfectly match the specimens on show.
Asteroids: Fabrication and supply of the asteroid elements by Adirondack Studios
The asteroid replication marks a technical highlight. For this installation, the team fabricated 600 asteroids in a range of scales from 50mm to 150mm. These were scanned from real meteorites found across the globe, 3D-printed as masters, and then reproduced for the display.
The Our World gallery celebrates the diversity of Earth’s ecosystems. In order to achieve 'GPS-accurate' realism, this space required close collaboration between the emirate’s DCT and the museum’s various fabrication partners.
Its exhibits include the UAE Desert, which spans 15.5 square metres, and was built using exact GPS coordinates provided by DCT to replicate a specific desert location. Every detail was meticulously reproduced, from the hue of the sand to the direction of ripples shaped by the wind to the traces left in the gravel by local wildlife.
At 20.5 square metres, the UAE Sabkha Oasis features a specialised recreation of Abu Dhabi’s salt-encrusted mudflats, including the complex mineralogy of gypsum and halite characteristic of the coastal ecosystems.
Additionally, the UAE Mountain and Coast installations illustrate the variety of the country’s topography, from rocky wadis with 'rock wash-out' textures to coastal mangroves and cyanobacterial mats. These forms measure 36 and 37 square metres.
UAE Mountain: Ground form and ripple effect fabricated by ADKS ME; animals jointly fabricated by Gekko, Qugga and Weta Workshop throughout the museumWhile the Our World gallery offers a detailed view of the local topography and climate, its educational remit reaches far beyond the Emirates.
Using specialised materials, ADKS ME recreated global biomes ranging from frosty tundra to the Amazonian rainforests.
Whale: Ground form fabrication by Adirondack Studios; baby whale was 3D printed by ADKS ME and aged by Weta Workshop; Foliage fabrication by Volumetric
The Atlantic Whale Fall exhibit explores the abyssal plains. At 18 square metres, its ground form uses dark brown and black tones to evoke the iron- and manganese-rich 'red clay' of the deep ocean.
The 34.5-square-metre Amazon installation represents the Várzea (seasonally flooded forest) both above and below the waterline.
African Savannah: Ground form fabrication by Adirondack Studios; All foliage fabrication by Volumetric; Gekko, Qugga, and Weta jointly fabricated the animals featured across the different areas within the museum
In the 40-square-metre African Savanna installation, visitors can see a mountain-to-waterhole landscape that demonstrates the dramatic topography and acacia-dotted grasslands of the African continent. In Life on Ice, a series of installations extending to almost 46 square metres, depicts the Tundra, permafrost, and melting icebergs.
Meanwhile, in the Resilient Planet gallery, science and art come together in 56 oversized models of pollen and diatoms. These were 3D-printed using clear resin and hang from the ceiling, giving guests a rare 'micro-magnified' view of the particles that sustain life in the atmosphere.
Pollen and Diatoms: 3D printed pollen and diatoms with hanging rods fabricated by ADKS ME; lighting by ALEC fitout.
Shaping the future of educational and immersive visitor attractions
With its combination of advanced fabrication and deep ecological research, the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi is positioned to become an international benchmark for the next era of educational and immersive visitor attractions.
Con Strydom, ADKS ME director of operations, says: "The exhibits within Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi allowed our diverse team to stretch its collective capabilities and flex its broad artistic and logistical skillset.
"It was the ideal reflection of the new technology, people and space we now have in our 4,000-square-meter shop, as well as a physical representation of our ongoing commitment to creative excellence."
Grietje Caels, ADKS ME head of project delivery, says: "Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi also offered us a unique opportunity to collaborate with such well-respected companies as Weta Workshop, Gekko, Qugga and Volumetric.
"We want to thank DCT Abu Dhabi, Miral and ALEC Fit-Out for entrusting us to not only make a scene, but to literally make history.
"As ADKS ME enters its second decade and we continue to grow exponentially in both people and space, we are excited for what the future will bring for our work across cultural and leisure destinations worldwide."
Attendees at the American Alliance of Museums Annual Conference & MuseumExpo, which is taking place in Philadelphia from 20 to 23 May, can meet Adirondack Studios’ director of global marketing and growth, Clara Rice.
Additionally, ADKS president/principal, Michael Blau, and business administration manager – ADK China, Zhou Yi “Joey”, will be attending IAAPA Expo Asia from 9 to 12 June.
To arrange a meeting for either of these shows, please email.
Earlier this year, ADKS concluded its five-decade story in the fifth excerpt from Fifty Years of Making a Scene: 1975-2025.
