Woodbury alumnus and Emirati architect Abdalla Almulla has been commissioned to design the upcoming Audi Innovation Hub during this year’s Dubai Design Week. Almulla founded his design firm ‘MULA’ in 2018; through the practice, he explores function, pattern and geometry in order to create design that is constantly evolving.
Graduating from Woodbury’s San Diego campus, Almulla was awarded the Grand Critique Faculty Choice Award and the Best Degree Project Award in Architectural Design graduation research based on geometric explorations. Branching out from his background in architecture, Abdulla discovered the potential of product design when exploring conceptual ideas, leading him to develop his work through the study of concepts, prototyping and digital technology through the making of products.
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The Audi Innovation Hub will be the meeting point for a week long program of the Audi Innovation Talks and the stage for the announcement of the winner of the fourth Audi Innovation Award. The concept at the root of the Audi Innovation Hub project is Audi’s first full electric car the all-new Audi e-tron. “I was inspired by the Audi e-tron’s power, comfort and silent interior. Within the power of the car, there is a tranquility promising the user a calm driving journey” said Abdalla. “Envisioning a structure that would reflect the design elements of the Audi e-tron, I focused on two guiding forces when designing the Hub: the horizontal lines sweeping along the car’s outer edge, and the power of silence while driving”.
The design layout is created by intersecting the circles of the Audi logo and linking this with a sweeping sculpted steel structure that connects two main areas with slim horizontal lines. The arrangement of lines and curves creates a transcending fluid pattern of robust steel that symbolize Audi’s power and performance in motion. The curved form of the Audi Innovation Hub also features a gradient mesh creating shade and representing the tranquil environment inside the e-tron as the visitor moves within the structure.
Almulla previously designed an installation called ‘Specular’ for jewelry brand Gafla during Dubai Design Week. Having participated in design weeks regionally and globally, his most recent participation was in Milan, where he was a part of UAE Design Stories exhibition. He was also commissioned by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (DCAA) to design public seating for the Al Safa Arts and Design Library, giving rise to his ‘Shak’l’ seating concept, exhibited at Downtown Design in 2018.
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