The Welfare Association receives Conceptual Proposals from five Architects  to masterplan and design the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Through an extensive selection process The Welfare Association is intending to appoint Architects  to masterplan and design the Palestinian Museum which will be located in Birzeit in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The selected Architects will be responsible for Masterplanning a phased development of the Palestinian Museum on a very important site within the overall campus of Birzeit University, near to Ramallah.

 

Selection Jury: (Standing, from right): Eng. Martyn Best, Dr. Faris Nimry,

 Ms. Sawsan Asfari, Dr. Olga Nefedova, (on screen: Dr. Sahar Huneidi,

 Mr. Victor Kashkoush), Mr. Omar Qattan, Dr. Khalil Hindi, Eng. Luay

 Khoury, Eng. Hasan Hilmi, (seated, from right): Ms. Zina Jardaneh,

Dr. Shadia Touqan, Dr. Nabi H. Qaddumi 

The selection process commenced in June 2011 with over 40 architects submitting expressions of interest in the project. 5 Architects were shortlisted and invited to prepare initial conceptual and technical submissions. Presentations were made on 2 and 3 December in London by the 5 Architects; Consolidated Consultants from Amman Jordan, Edward Cullinan Architects from London, Henning Larsen from Copenhagen, Heneghan Peng from Dublin and Moriyama and Teshima from Toronto.

A decision on the appointment is expected to be made within the next two weeks.

The Palestinian Museum will be designed to be constructed in 2 phases with the first phase of 2,500 m2 to be completed by 2014. The construction budget for the first Phase will be around US$8 million. The second phase will be in the order of 5,000 m2 and will be developed following the opening of Phase 1.  

The Palestinian Museum will be a unique cultural project and is being developed to become the primary and most authoritative source of knowledge and new thinking about Palestinian history, culture and contemporary life. Such a space does not currently exist. The Museum is conceived as a thematic rather than simply a narrative museum, in which many different aspects of Palestinian history and culture will be explored in innovative and revealing ways, creating debate and discussion about both past and contemporary themes.

The Palestinian Museum project has been in gestation for over a decade and has gone through a number of different stages of debate, thinking and rethinking. After a great deal of internal discussion and external consultation, the Welfare Association is now totally confident that the overall strategy and concept direction allow for the Palestinian Museum to be built. Because of the nature of the Palestinian reality, where a majority of Palestinians are today living outside historic Palestine (i.e. Israel and the Occupied Territories); and because of the barriers and checkpoints erected by Israel which prevent the freedom of movement of Palestinians living under occupation (and prevent most Palestinians in the Diaspora from even entering any part of their country), the Museum is conceived as a hub which, in addition to catering to the population in the West Bank, will also serve a network of branches and associated centres, sharing with them information, research, web-based material and touring exhibitions, as well as human resources and expertise.

As any other museum in the world, the Palestinian Museum will hope to attract the largest possible number of visitors. Realistically, however, given the restrictions that exist for Palestinians, it can only hope to physically serve West Bank Palestinians in the near future and of course international visitors (Palestinians or non-Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are legally forbidden by Israel from entering Area A in the Occupied Territories, where this museum will be built). It will have an extensive outreach programme and will also benefit from its proximity to Birzeit University, north of Ramallah, which generously gave the project 40,000 sq metres of land on a very long lease.

The Architectural selection process was organised by Projacs of Kuwait and Cultural Innovations from London. Projacs are providing Project Management services for the Palestinian Museum. Cultural Innovations are Museological and Strategic Advisers and have worked for 2 years with the Welfare Association to develop the Strategic Plan and Design Briefs which are the basis for the Palestinian Museum’s development.

To see submission images, please follow the link: 

www.ci-projects.com 

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