INTERVIEW/Taiwan-born architect brings life, death into Egyptian museum design

Cairo, Oct. 25 (CNA) After years of delay, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Cairo, Egypt was unveiled to the world in a limited soft-opening on Oct. 16, finally giving people a peak at the design concept of Taiwanese-American architect Peng Shih-fu (彭士佛) and his wife Róisín Heneghan.

Initially scheduled to be completed by 2013, the world's largest archaeology museum to-be faced countless delays due to many factors, but the design that allows visitors to physically experience ancient Egyptian values was conceived over 20 years ago.

The building's design was finalized in 2003 when plans from Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects was chosen out of 1,557 submissions from 82 nations in what was documented as the second largest architectural competition in modern history.

The Irish company was founded by Peng, a Taiwanese immigrant to the United States, and his wife Heneghan from Ireland.

Based on the architecture firm's design, the GEM building sits squarely between the Giza Plateau and the Nile Valley Plain in what Peng said was an intentional choice he made in reflection of ancient Egypt's concept of life and death.

According to the architect, only his firm among the 1,557 entries in the competition, which was launched in January 2002, proposed to erect the GEM between the Giza Plateau and the Nile Valley Plain to embrace the beauty of life and death as well as the unique geography of the locations.

The other competitors, he said, recommended that the museum be erected on either the plateau or the plain.

"Architecture needs to respect the environment," Peng said to CNA in an online interview in which he explained his firm's thinking.

"The design concept is presented in two parts through the main construction of the architecture and its surrounding landscape. The main body of the museum reflects the past while the outdoor scenic area presents the rich lives of modern-day humans," he said.

"The entire compound blends together the interior and exterior; the past and the present; death and life."

Peng said that while designing the GEM, he did a lot of research on ancient Egypt, its culture, and the relationship between its heritage architectures and the civilization's geography.

"It is because of this geographical location that Egypt was able to embark on a 5,000-year journey through history," Peng said.

According to Peng, ancient Egyptians saw the sun-rising east as a metaphor for birth, and the sun-setting west as a symbol of death, which is why ancient temples of immortal gods were historically built on the eastern bank of the Nile, while the monuments for deceased pharaohs were traditionally erected on the western bank.

In honor of the cultural concept, Peng and his firm have visitors enter the museum from the proximity of the Nile Valley Plain and gradually move in a westward direction toward the Giza Plateau.

Moving from the fertile east to the royal tombs of the west, GEM visitors will experience the crossroads that is life and death, Peng said, noting that a design that can showcase geographical uniqueness and local history is pivotal to a museum.

Under the soft-opening, up to 4,000 pre-registered visitors a day will be able to privately tour the museum's commercial area, exterior gardens, Grand Hall, Grand Staircase and main galleries.

The GEM's flagship exhibit, the Tutankhamun Galleries, as well as its Children's Museum and Khufu's Boat Museum remain closed to the public.

Once the GEM officially opens, which could happen before the end of 2024, over 100,000 artifacts from ancient Egyptian dynasties will be displayed over the museum's 872,000 square feet of floor space.

The most popular gallery inside the GEM will likely be the complete King Tut collection that consists of around 5,000 pieces, many of which will be revealed to the world for the first time since the first items were unearthed in 1922.