American University of Dubai Mohammed Bin raid School For Communications. Dubai Department of Visual Communication - Faculty Tower
2015
Dubai United Arab Emirates
D&A Architects - Durban in assoc. NEB - Dubai
Team: Ivor Daniel, Elisa Daniel, Jessica Dyer, J P DeMarigny
The American University of Dubai’s Department of Visual Communications is located adjacent to Sheikh Zayed Road, within one of the city’s most prominent urban corridors. The project was developed as an academic and residential extension of the university, with a focus on visual communication, media production and the role of language - particularly Arabic - in contemporary media and education.
The key constraint was to create an integrated academic environment within a high-density, high-visibility urban setting, where the university’s educational mission needed to be expressed architecturally while also accommodating mixed-use residential accommodation for students and faculty. The building also needed to engage the public realm while maintaining clear separation between academic, exhibition and living environments.
The design response organises the faculty building as a layered media interface, incorporating offices, lecture theatres, laboratories and workshops arranged around a three-storey illuminated façade conceived as a “media wall.” At ground level, exhibition spaces and a major auditorium connect directly to a 30-storey residential tower, forming a vertical campus that combines learning and living. The architectural language differentiates the academic base from the residential tower, while maintaining visual continuity across the composition.
The result is a vertically integrated university precinct that merges education, media production and residential life, expressing both the academic function of communication and the broader cultural reach of Arabic media within a global city context.
