Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi launched Natural Brickstory on a clear institutional premise: play is not a distraction from science but a pathway into it. The exhibition, running through November 8, operates as an integrated component of the museum’s curatorial mission rather than a peripheral attraction, connecting hands-on Lego construction directly to the permanent scientific collections housed within the 35,000-square-metre building designed by Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo.
Museum director Peter Kjaergaard set out the pedagogical rationale plainly in an interview with The National. “Play is fundamental to learning and discovery,” he said. “It sparks curiosity, fuels imagination and nurtures creativity, the very qualities that drive scientific exploration.” That philosophy is embedded in the exhibition’s structure, which moves visitors from passive observation toward active construction and experimentation across themed zones spanning 13.8 billion years of natural history.
The exhibition unfolds in deliberate sequence. Large collaborative Lego builds draw children in first, then dedicated play areas invite visitors to construct their own creations, from flowers to buildings. Excavation-style zones allow children to dig and examine objects. Trails and workshops run alongside the main displays, and additional programming is expected as the exhibition progresses.
Scale is part of the point. Large-format Lego models of dinosaurs, present-day animals, an astronaut, and mineral-inspired structures are positioned throughout the space. A detailed Lego recreation of the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi building itself features among the displays, a curatorial choice that turns the institution into its own exhibit.
What changes the exhibition’s function from novelty to strategy is its relationship to the permanent galleries. A visitor whose curiosity is sparked by a Lego dinosaur or celestial model can move directly into the wider collections to encounter original specimens and detailed scientific narratives. Those galleries include Stan, one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons ever discovered, and a fragment of the Murchison meteorite containing material billions of years old. The permanent displays also examine Abu Dhabi’s prehistoric environment, present-day biodiversity, and planetary futures.
Alia AlHammadi, the museum’s acting partnership and commercial department director, described the Lego collaboration as an opportunity to “inspire people to see familiar places through a new lens” and enable visitors to experience the museum in an “entirely new way.”
The museum’s broader institutional mandate extends beyond public programming. Research facilities within the building support work in palaeontology, earth sciences, biodiversity, and conservation, positioning Natural Brickstory within a wider commitment to combining community science engagement with active scholarly inquiry.
Natural Brickstory is included with standard museum admission. Tickets begin at Dh70 for adults, entry is free for visitors under 18, and UAE residents receive a 30 per cent discount through September 30. Whether the exhibition’s model of using play as a gateway to collections science influences how the museum structures future programming remains to be seen.