17 June 2003
Buro Happold part of Egyptian Museum win
Image courtesy of heneghan.peng.architects, modelmaker: Kandor Modelmaker, Model Photography: Richard Davies
Buro Happold is part of the project team for the winning design for the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), to be built in Egypt between Cairo and the Pyramids. Within a team led by Dublin-based heneghan.peng.architects Buro Happold will provide building services and information systems and communication engineering for the project envisioned as the world's largest Egyptian antiquities museum.
The GEM will be designed to maximise access - physical, intellectual and cultural - to the Museum's collections, exhibitions, programmes, skills and expertise. The architectural solution defines a multi-function building which will incorporate a variety of diverse environments to meet the conservation requirements of the collections, visitors and museum workers. An integrated solution utilising a variety of environmental control systems and strategies will be employed to achieve these different conditions.
The information and communication systems for the GEM will also serve diverse needs. To create memorable visitor experiences, achieve operational effectiveness and enhance scholarly understanding a successful museum will depend on integration between dedicated systems catering for specific user needs. Buro Happold’s aim is to create a flexible information and communication platform with a reliable, flexible and interconnected infrastructure that allows the museum to meet all these requirements, now and as they evolve.
Tony McLaughlin, Buro Happold partner, comments: ‘While creating exciting contemporary architecture is about icons, in today's environment it is also about high performance and environmental sustainability at every level. Sustainability is emerging as a quality revolution in planning, design and construction and Buro Happold’s dynamic approach will provide a series of energy efficient environments tailored to the new Museum.’
The $350 million GEM will be built a mile from the Giza Pyramids plateau and will house over 150,000 artefacts.
Background information for editors:
Press office and practice information
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, disability design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
