New Designs in old Structure - St.George museum

Hope Enterprise University college

Project idea

The purpose of the project is to create an adaptive reuse design on an existing museum found in a compound of a church. The new design is an extension museum projected to benefit its context. It tries to show history and architecture of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church in chronological order.

Project description

Architecture is a living history. By taking this historical value of architecture, the project tried to keep history not only in its planar layouts, but also in its formal expression. The exhibition spaces include spaces with old parchments up to spaces with digital technologies as a means of display. People will experience difference in centuries in their visit. Functionally the visit starts from a space designed like a cave to represent the ancient period. After that, a fragmented shaped building follows depicting the destruction occurred to the church by "Gragne Ahmed" (Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi ) in the medieval time. The visit ends in an extending white interior space with digital displays as a means of display. The circularly perforated facade which was aimed to show the infinite history left untold in the museum also casts different type of shadow at different times in a day.

Technical information

The new design is proposed to be built with concrete. Perforated wall is used as window openings to inlet light. The circular window glasses have hidden window frames. The structure is supported with slanted beams and columns that follow the form of the building to withstand loads at the same time keeping the aesthetic of the building.