Mimetism and respect for the monumental site are the fundamental goal of the whole project: in order to minimize the landscape impact and to controll solar penetration and humidity the GEM structure is subterranean. Underground complex passages - starting from a great wall dyke that stands for separation between daily reality and ancient Egyptian History - connect and/or run through different sized dark interior chambers, natural lighted rooms, open air rest areas and three transversal connecting tunnels. A sort of nervous system that lies inside the hill, only marked outside by artificial faults, geological fractures that bring indirect light and fresh breeze inside the Museum, in a form of canyons.

The exposition corridors and rooms lie on different levels and inclined sections, forming splitted straight lines where visitors discover the space step by step; a “breath space” that changes suddenly with narrowings and widenings, light slopes and descents, twilighted chambers and sunny open spaces that follow one another without a breake. When viewed along these different spaces, the collections seem to be wraped in mystery atmosphere and bring visitors back to centuries to very first archeological discovery of Egyptian Civilisation.  Special open air rest areas offer fine views over the Pyramids. The deep canyons let sunrise and sunset to be experienced by people walking on their bottom. Not only a Musum but a place where to get excited, a citadel where worlwide visitor can understand the importance of silence, light, darkness and respect for a very special art, craft and religion: a new kind of museum where you can feel to be protagonist passing from passive assumption of information to an active interaction with exhibited material and the surrounding places. Every piece of the collection finds its right place in accordance with experts and historicians... finally a Museum built not only by architects.

The special underground structure lets to add new rooms, corridors and storerooms as the collection grow up on time, as if it was a creature. The only structures that stand over the hill are the tall chimneys that are used to air the inside rooms and to get cool and the panoramic glass restaurant built on top of a fault from which visitors could dominate the whole flat space of Giza.

We tried to involve the visitors inside the magic Egypt.

2003 Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza - Egypt

Team Leader:

Arch. Vittorio Rossi, Treviso


Teamwork:

Arch. Guglielmo Botter, Treviso

Arch. Roberto Benetton, Treviso


Project was selected as one of the best 100 worldwide entries trough 1700 partecipants.

The project is published on the official GEM catalogue published by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.