Museum Algeria

A large bowl, a pestle, laying on  the beach of Algiers, gather the objects which tell the history of Africa.

The sun, lighting the whole continent, breaks the soil where the bowl is placed. The shadow of the pestle/gnomon draws the park and measures the space and the time. The great museum so becomes a machine and the symbol of the many stories and traditions of Africa

The largely dimensioned  museum extended on a surface of more than fifteen thousand square meters ,is designed  not only for merely exhibition functions, but also for cultural, receptive and divulgation activities.

The concept consists of a big container – which for evident morphologic analogies is synthetically defined as “bowl” – placed more than fifteen meters above the ground  zero and laying on a large articulate covered volume.

The building occupies the ground, partially mingling with it or outlined as emerging glass structures standing out against the sky.

Inside the building a large indoor square, with its own autonomous  character independent  from the other functions (museum, logistics, administration) but connected to them, links also the two sides of the park: the north and sea  oriented one and  the south oriented side facing the African continent..

The two elements, the bowl and the building, are linked by a vertical element passing through them: it is a real and peculiar  transversal gnomon, which has also the role of  vertical element connecting the zero ground with the spaces inside the bowl as well as with its roof. This vertical element becomes the core of the whole building and takes inside a lift, with the relevant emergency stair, to reach the top.

At the lower levels, a twin stair structure spins around the gnomon and leads the users at the levels of the museum, auditorium-theater, restaurant and  terrace on the roof.

The gnomon itself represents the second  identification mark of the whole project  and  it is the element that links all the activities distributed inside the “bowl”; at the same time it is the centre of the large sheltered square serving all the places at zero level.

At a wider glance, taking into consideration  the importance of  the landscape and territory, the gnomon allows to look at the north side of the park, oriented to the Mediterranean sea, being the south side turned towards the boundless African continent.

That’s not all. The gnomon itself, above the auditorium roof, becomes the symbol and the instrument of the great solar watch and of the sun-dial that, by their shadows, outline the park, measure the time elapsing and allow to behold  the stars.

The concept is completed by the wide park defined by rigid geometries: it links the two sides  being itself an entity to watch and  live.

Summarizing the functional destinations, they are: above, inside the “bowl”, are the spaces of the large 400 seats auditorium with its mobile shelter, the movie and video hall, the restaurant as well as all the service rooms; above the bowl shelter a large outdoor square invites to enjoy the sight of the park below.

Inside the building at zero level the project includes the large indoor square, the exhibition areas of the museum with the rooms of the permanent section and the halls for the temporary exhibitions. All the administration and logistics services, as well as  the laboratories and  the service spaces of the museum, are concentrated in the west side.