International competition sponsored by UNESCO and the Egyptian Government. The sole building is crossed over by a park and stands for a long covered, linear street nearby Giza – the settlement of Egypt’s three biggest pyramids. So the street-building is a public street right above the permanent exhibition; and resembles the materialization of the Egyptian Civilization’s nine main periods: the higher the level along the street, the more recent the exhibition period underneath the street.
Some excerpts of the project description:
“The ground level – the Pedestrian Way – is fully opened to the public, that can use it to enter the museum alongside the ramps and plateaus or just cross from Alexandria Desert Road to Service Road. Garden pools are distributed along the building, sometimes on ground level sometimes below ground level (bringing natural light to some exhibition rooms underneath). The pedestrian way is the main interior space of the building, with heights that vary from 10 to 40 meters when there is building above, or opens up to the sky when there is not. It is a public space with nine plateaus linked by staircases, the plateau corresponding to the nine historic periods of the Permanent Exhibition.
“Cutting the site in two halves, the museum walls also split the Park. It defines another bar, which is aligned with the pyramids’ diagonal axis, perpendicular to the building. The continuum of the walls has an opening with an 80 meters span that allows for a penetration of the parks inside the building. This intersection happens at the permanent exhibitions level, and a elevated walkway connects both sides of the ground public level. The Dune Park, divided in two, surrounds the whole building and is stitched by walkways cutting through the building.”
Model: Aristides Lourenço