Giza, Egypt
Designed by Dublin-based Heneghan Peng, Egypt’s Grand Museum—the final resting place of the artifacts from Pharaoh Tutankhamun—will be the largest archaeology museum in the world.
The winning design was chosen in 2003, with a facade or wall of semi-translucent stone, one kilometer long, that can be backlit at night, and has taken 17 years to build.
Located in Giza, the pyramids, funerary monuments, are located in the desert on the plateau 2km from the museum site, while the site for the museum is located both in the valley and on the plateau.
The design of the museum utilises the level difference to construct a new ‘edge’ to the plateau, a
surface defined by a veil of translucent stone that transforms from day to night. The museum exists
between the level of the Nile Valley and the plateau, never extending above the plateau.
A 3-dimensional structure inscribed by a set of visual axes from the site to the three pyramids defines the framework within which the museum emerges, from the overall scale of the site to the smallest of details.
The approach to the museum is a series of layers, whereby the visitor moves through a monumental forecourt, a shaded entrance area and a grand staircase that ascends to plateau level, the level at which the galleries are located where for the first time the visitor sees the pyramids from within the museum.
The museum is envisaged as a cultural complex of activities devoted to Egyptology and will contain 24,000m² of permanent exhibition space, almost 4 football fields in size, a children’s museum, conference and education facilities, a large conservation center and extensive gardens on the 50hA site.
The collections of the museum include the Tutankhamen collection, which is currently housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the Solar Boat that is now housed beside the pyramids.
The new museum will feature panoramic views of the pyramids of Giza, and the biggest artifact will be a huge statue of Ramses the Great. The grand staircase will boast 87 statues of pharaohs and Egyptian gods.
The collection will be comprised of approximately 100,000 objects, including all 5,600 objects from the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
“It’s a new landmark that is being added to the complete view of the city of greater Cairo… for the first time the pyramids and the fantastic treasures of Tutankhamun will be eye to eye,” Tarek Tawfik, the former director-general of the Grand Egyptian Museum Project, said at the time.
Heneghan Peng’s Grand Museum in Cairo
Architects: Heneghan Peng
Architects of Record: RMC
Landscape Architects: West 8
Client: Ministry of Culture, Egypt
