THE LANE : A MUSEUM DEDICATED TO MY BELOVED CORRUPTED COUNTRY,EGYPT

Arab academy for science and technology

Project idea

Hello everyone,
Here I was working on a museum that should address and triggers any aspect of the Egyptian culture through the architect point of view. Here came my inspiration for the museum that dedicated to my beloved corrupted country, Egypt. The concept of corruption could be shown easily through the segregation between the governmental employee and the Egyptian citizen . To be clear and honest governmental corruption, bribery, people with power always appears in the Egyptian culture and me personally had dealt with it through different situations , whether police stations, hospitals , governmental offices ,etc.. The only element that remained present in all of these is the glass transparent window that segregates between the citizen and the employee. So the museum was mainly based on the segregation in spatial experience. How?? Through this massive bulky wall that some times open to have spaces inside the wall(Inside the segregation) so you can easily see in the section the man moving inside the wall an another one is behind this wall . Not to be fully pessimistic I made the top of the wall open to the sky to have also different sense with the outdoor light and air and noise of the cars , birds people chatting, etc.. One interesting thing about the circulation is that there is no ticket rooms to enter the museum otherwise before every space there is the security pass machine that works by adding money to it (YOU HAVE TO PAY BRIBERY) so based on how much you are willing to pay you can move to the next space. Also the location of the museum is totally creative and delivers the statement directly. It is positioned in front of the PRESEDENTIAL PALACE in New Alamien , Egypt pointing with its uprising cantilever tip towards the palace. And with the gradual increasing slope of the floor where the user will eventually find himself in front of the only WINDOW of the museum with its transparent glass and the image of the palace in front of him and due to the gradual increase of the floor slope he will find himself at the same level of the palace dome delivering to him that he can really reach where ever he wants.

Project description

The project consists of the introductory zone which is the entrance two monumental walls tapering inside towards each other gradually replicating the crowd of the citizens going to a a governmental office ( not the typical double triple height elegant entrance for a museum) the he will meet a series of galleries through TRANSPARENT GLASS partitions some of them don't take you to another space and you have to go back and go out to reach another space. Then the restaurant and the administration and the sin tree exhibition with its spiraling ramp that takes you to the above mezzanine floor to overlook the test gallery . You can continue and reach the test gallery with its different routes whether the long stairs (people with dignity) or move from the bottom passing by the music hall which is the short path( like paying a bribery) and at the end both will reach the same space . This is the truth bad people get to their goals and also good people reach . We are not living in the LALA land.to continue through this to reach the alien governmental hall and its secret passage hall which presents most of the documents that talks about corruption rates in the country and examples of corrupted people and this space is really alien with different structure system different spatial experience different acoustics and lighting as if you were in a room full of eyes looking at you. Finally you reach the finale hall with its only window and the fake wall so you in front of the palace through the window with the fake wall system and another man beside you both of you really finally figuring out your whole experience.

Technical information

The construction of the building is mainly based on the concept of the story . We had the government which is the ruler through the thick stone bearing wall that acts as the primary structure system except for the last part of the cantilevered vierndeel mass where the primary structure wall becomes fake structure system (you can notice in the plan that the last not touching the ground wall are not hatched which means they are not bearing the loads anymore) just a part of the skin as that the government becomes in the last and most important hall becomes useless and another structure system (vierndeel) introduces in this space and carries it which means that the main system became fake at the end . At some times this wall was split and rejoined by a series of trusses that appear in the top view and the secondary system is a series of I beams that is all emerging from the wall on different levels and orientations to hold the ceiling. Then finally comes the external skin that covers in an anticipated way the museum (country) leaving the room for the only broken line of light through the wall to the building as if this broken line sometimes deforming the building appears sometimes disappears another times (government is the deformation) and another time through its openness and light is the breathing lung and backbone for the museum.