"Founded in 1868, the A.U.B. Museum is today the second most important Museum in Lebanon after the National Museum of Beirut. In order to accommodate a larger public, it needs updating and rehabilitation of both the technical requirements, such as air conditioning, electrical wiring and fire control, and the museal requirements such as the visitor’s flow, the collection distribution and the display concept. Last but not least, this rehabilitation has to preserve the architectonic elements of this old building.
CHRONOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC ITINERARIES
Along the outer wall of the Museum, a “skin” conceals the air conditioning pipes and the electrical wires. It also integrates showcases, graphic supports for information such as titles, maps…and storage cupboards. As a design element it serves as a guideline for the Museum’s chronological itinerary, showing the evolution of artifacts through the ages. The rest of the collection is grouped into many different themes, displayed in appropriate new showcases.
THE MEZZANINE:
The first main hall displays artifacts from the Stone Age to the Early Iron Age. The rest of the collection is displayed either on the peripheral skin or in the freestanding thematic showcases arranged in small alcoves in the central part of the hall. In these alcoves the visitor will experience a different scale of space. Covering them was the best way to ensure good lighting control and to enhance their spatial quality. The next step was to use this cover as a mezzanine floor. This mezzanine will serve as a spine linking the two main halls, will provide an additional 70m2 of display area for small objects (coins, jewelry, seals,…) and will free the second main hall from central showcases difficult to lit.
THE OPEN AIR MUSEUM:
The Museum’s main entrance has been relocated in order to ensure a better visitor’s flow, a clear entrance space and a functional museum shop. The green space in front of the entrance is turned into a mineral piazza, displaying the stone elements and the fragments of columns and capitals, thus creating an open air Museum.
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