Silence, Darkness and Light: The Grand Egyptian Museum

How can the unique legacy of the most ancient of civilizations be represented within a single building? How can one building spans the area between heaven and earth, the space described in the cosmology of our pharonic ancestors? Certainly, to design such a building is a unique challenge, and an unprecedented opportunity, on this most privileged of sites in the history of mankind, that a museum is to be constructed capable of linking the immemorial past with the distant future spanning both the horizons of the ancients and those as yet unseen. Through the investigation of phenomenology, geometry, simplicity, purity and light, listening to the voice of silence, emerging to the light from the darkness, and by understanding the strength of simplicity after passing through complexity, This thesis offers an endless stream of ideas that challenge the mind. The vision for the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is to establish a place where people from different nations and cultures will be able to immerse themselves in the rich culture heritage from more than 5.000 years of Egyptian civilization. With the support of new technology, more effective and efficient dissemination of information can be achieved, enabling the New Museum to be a source of enjoyable, entertaining, educational and cultural experiences for all visitors. This project aims at structuring a complex of exhibits and facilities, which will accommodate all Pharaonic periods, it will be the largest museum in the world, and will provide access to information and future knowledge. It results from the careful articulation of the problem and a subsequent ordering of constraints within the context of the competition proposal.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Architecture

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Department dc:contributor.department

Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Ali, Ahmed Kamal

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Brown, William W.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Green, William R.
• Galloway, William U.
• O'Brien, Michael J.

• Phenomenology
• Mirage
• Hypar-textual route
• Sacred Geometry
• Journey
• Synchronic
• Diachronic
• Competition
• Museum
• Egypt

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-03012004-162839

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/9731