Amity Dubai rising from the sand

In January 2014, a ceremonial ground-breaking was held for the Amity Dubai campus. It was exciting to see the campus coming out of the ground and taking shape in a big way. Here is some additional information about the campus design and delivery.

By Stephen Johnson, CannonDesign May 18, 2015

During a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates and CannonDesign’s office in Abu Dhabi, I had the opportunity to visit the construction site for the new Amity University campus in Dubai, which CannonDesign planned and designed throughout 2013. The 15-acre site is part of the Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), a major development currently home to 21 international branch campuses from 11 countries around the world serving 20,000 students. ArchGroup was selected to complete the tender documents and Shapoorji Pallonji is now building the campus.

A Master Plan with a Purpose
The campus master plan accommodates 3,000 students across 550,000 sf of new construction and Phase 1 (pictured here under construction) includes 360,000 sf for an initial 2,000 students. Amity Dubai’s vision is a “fusion” campus, where departmental silos are broken down and the various schools – business, engineering, hospitality and applied science – are integrated. These disciplines are focused on educating students to apply their knowledge to real-world issues facing the region and world at large.

The Amity Education Group
Amity – and its parent organization the Ritnand Balved Foundation – are based in India and focused on advancing education across the world. CannonDesign has been engaged with the group for many years. In addition to the campus in Dubai, we are working on a second campus with them that’s currently under construction in Panvel, India – near Mumbai.

Unique Delivery
To execute the design for the Amity Dubai campus, CannonDesign brought in leaders and subject experts from all different offices across the firm. Leaders from our Mumbai, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Boston, and New York offices collaborated to help Amity achieve its vision.

I’m looking forward to returning as the project evolves, and our entire team is excited to continue watching the vision being realized.