Dig It Dubai

A modern day entertainment facility which focuses on making real-life experience fun for children.

The ‘Dig It Dubai’ experience appeals to children as young as 18 months, and as old as 10. Centred around a child’s version of a construction site, Dig It offers different play areas including a driving school and track area; a soft play zone with a building theme; a Lego build section; and an augmented reality landscape populated by dinosaurs.

Meeting the opening date of 1 July 2018 meant completing in daytime temperatures of 40°C. Fitting out in such conditions is a well-known precursor to buckling and distortion of materials — meaning that a prevention strategy was a necessity.

• Building in a mall that was itself still under construction — an issue that reduced our access to the water and cooling systems we needed for the final stages of construction.
• Optimising the construction sequence so that the different zones could all be accommodated in a relatively small space.

• We had to hold back from completing until we could achieve constant internal ambient temperature. Materials and other finishes tend to become distorted if they are designed for an air-conditioned environment but are installed in the heat and humidity. But, by liaising closely with the construction managers in the mall we could time the final stages so that the critical installations were only made when we had access to air conditioning and cold water. We used critical path analysis to timetable the installation programme — and we opened on time.
• Sequencing the construction of the various zones was critical to the success of the project. We put in the soft play area and driving school first — as the modules they were made of contained large, heavy pieces of equipment. The other areas were fitted in around them.