The Competition:

A public competition, Initiated by the Jerusalem municipality, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Fund and the Science Museum in Jerusalem during 2012, for the design of the Jerusalem Nature Museum as part of the Nature, Science and Technology Campus.

The Competition site resides within the national museums’ campus in Jerusalem, in proximity to the Israel Museum, the “Knesset”and the site of the future national library, on a natural slop vegetated with various trees and bushes.

THE PROPOSAL: NATURE IN A BOX

Urban Context: Accessibility, Link, Nature Preservation

The location of the Natural History Museum allows it to become both a prominent national educational institution, and a key urban link, weaving the entire museum campus into one coherent and walkable system.

The museum path thus became the leading design principle. The museum was designed as four sub-buildings consisting the different galleries, with the”museum path” in between them serving both as an inner-museum route and as an urban connector in the museum campus. The design allows the museum to be constructed in various phases, in any of which the path is The building also allows an additional connection- between the future National Library and the Hebrew University Campus of Givat-Ram.

Nature in a Box – an Exhibition Box for Knowledge, Nature and Discovery

The museum was perceived as “nature in a box”- an exhibition box for knowledge, nature and discovery. The different galleries were designed to construct together an  abstract Canyon, with the path/bridge linking them.