The Nile. The ancient God. The river that gave birth to one of the biggest civilizations.The vain of Africa deserves its own place of admiration.
CROSSING NILE_MUSEUM was designed to resemble a downscaled model of the Nile, which will have a direct impact to the visitors, in order to accentuate the importance, the geographical characteristics and the main architectural elements that define the entity of the structures, built along the river banks. In order to imply these characteristics, the museum is built on Nile’s east bank, “the shore of life and resurrection”, across a new technical tributary that was dug, next to the main flow. The structure of the museum reminisces -but doesn’t imitate- the traditional architecture of the old temples. The inclined supporting walls, the limestone masonry, the narrow openings and the monumental but dynamic forms, are the main elements that inspired the structure.
The new tributary penetrates the museum on its south side, crosses the building and flees to its north side. The visitors follow this flow as part of their museological experience.
Someone can come across the building on his cruise along the Nile. By entering the museum, the visitor follows an anti-clockwise route and follows the river-flow from its reservoir, in the heart of Africa, towards its journey to the Mediterranean Sea. After the introductory part of the museum, the main exhibition starts on the southern side of the building and continues to the north, following the flow of the river. In this way the visitor crosses all the important cities and their accordant exhibitions, from the “03. Jinja, Uganda” section up to the “09. Alexandria, Egypt” section.
The museum offers the visitor an open-space experience through its main volume, disrupted by just a few enclosed parts. The main volume is facing the entrance and hosts the majority of the museum’s functions, such as, an auditorium of 130 seats, a room for temporary exhibitions, museum’s offices and a café on the top floor. In addition to the previous, the more confined areas of the museum host a projection room, as well as, an interactive and an audiovisual room.
