London-based Mossessian Architecture and Studio Adeline Rispal have been announced as the winning duo of a competition to design Makkah Museum in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Mossessian Architecture firm was founded by world-renowned French-Armenian architect Michel Mossessian.
During his visit to Armenia in 2014, Mossessian had also discusses prospects of cooperation in the domain of urban development with Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan. The architect said he was impressed by the architecture in Yerevan and would be interested in working on projects utilizing the city’s public spaces. However, so such plans have materialised to date.
Makkah Museum in Mecca will be the first cultural institution of its kind, dedicated to the Islamic faith and located seven kilometers from the Ka’aba, the most sacred Muslim site in the world, in the city that is considered to be the birthplace of Prophet Mohammad. Because non-Muslims are prohibited from entering Mecca, exceptions will have to be made for the architects themselves to see the realization of their design.
The museum will host 5,600 square meters of gallery space, an auditorium, a teaching space, bookstore, climate-controlled roof garden and restaurant. The design includes a central void to act as a minaret, or the tower part of a mosque, which visitors will ascend with a continuous ramp and then descend with a parallel spiral staircase.
According to DeZeen, heritage campaigners are concerned about recent developments in Mecca that have sacrificed historic buildings in order to appease the millions of pilgrims who visit Mecca for their Hajj.
Mossessian discussed similar issues of reconciling the past with the present and future during his interview with CivilNet on ‘Democratic Architecture.’
Speaking in the context of Armenia, he explained, “it is very difficult to make shifts, and usually the big chances are catastrophic in the capacity of finding your reference and space and ways of thinking.” It is thus necessary to “orchestrate complex input into something that makes sense into locality, sense of place, while still including a sense of history, without going into negation… the vision of the past has to be recognized as a continuum.”
