Underwater museum for Egypt / Jacques Rougerie

Architect Jacques Rougerie -an expert when it comes to space and underwater structures- has designed the soon-to-be first underwater museum. It will be located off the coast of Egypt, near the new Library of Alexandria, where Cleopatra once had a palace on an island in one of the largest human-made bays in the world back in the day, submerged by earthquakes in the 4th century.
The ruins were discovered years ago, and include several sphinxes, statues, roman and greek shipwrecks and pieces believed to be from the Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world).
This ruins haven’t been moved, since it would be a tremendous effort that could damage the ruins in the process. Also, it follows the 2001 UNESCO convention for the preservation of underwater heritage.
With that in mind, the museum is designed as both inland and submarine. The building will have four tall structures shaped like the sails of fellucas, the traditional sailboats used in the Nile. From the inland building, underwater fiberglass tunnels will take visitors to structures where they can view antiquities still lying on the seabed.

Sounds like a big challenge, but since the bay is only about 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) deep, the museum will not face strong water pressure on its walls, something that makes this idea more feasible. And with construction expected to take only three years, we could have this new concept of building ready pretty soon. But first, they need to secure funding.
Seen at National Geographic.
Actual ruins on the seabed:


























































16 Comments to “Underwater museum for Egypt / Jacques Rougerie” »
Wow great, i shouuld visit it.
Cheers
[...] dank archdaily der hats von national geographic Filed under : ArchitekturBy Ruebe On October 13, 2008 At 10:58 [...]
[...] quieres ver algunas de las imágenes de éste nuevo museo y obtener más información visita: Archdaily, National [...]
[...] y sacarlas las pondría en peligro inminente. En respuesta a esto, se pensó construir el primer museo submarino, diseñado por el arquitecto Jacques Rougerie, experto en estructuras espaciales y submarinas, el [...]
[...] Underwater museum for Egypt / Jacques Rougerie | Arch Daily “In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers” (Aga Khan IV, 16 March 1983, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan) [...]
[...] clipped from http://www.archdaily.com [...]
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[...] clipped from http://www.archdaily.com [...]
[...] clipped from http://www.archdaily.com [...]
I’m an architecture student. I’ve taken underwater civilization museum as my thesis.If anybody knows more about this museum in Egypt, please let me know. any links to this kind of museums will be of great help.
this is a real good one.
[...] ¦ Archdaily, Rougerie.com y National [...]
i don’t like the four tall structures , he said they are like sails of feloukas of the nile river, but the museum is in alexandria on the mediterenean sea and not on the nile !!!
didn’t he recongnise that alexandria have an identity of sailing boats that has never used sails of feloukas !!
i like the museum at all excwpt the four sails
[...] y sacarlas las pondría en peligro inminente. En respuesta a esto, se pensó construir el primer museo submarino, diseñado por el arquitecto Jacques Rougerie, experto en estructuras espaciales y submarinas, el [...]
hi
please send detail Underwater museum
tanks
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