OMA Managing Partner – Architect David Gianotten: “The opportunity to design the Gallery of the Kings compelled us to explore how the contemporary museum experience and the historical context of artifacts can coexist through architecture. It has been an honor to work with the museum’s highly professional and dedicated team on this project. We look forward to seeing how local and international visitors engage with this invaluable collection in new ways.”
The design of the Gallery of the Kings was significantly informed by the curatorial and research efforts of Museo Egizio. The new gallery experience is defined by a transition from darkness to light – a concept that historically symbolized the process of creation in ancient Egypt, often associated with kings and gods.
Visitors enter through a dark entryway with digital projections depicting the history of the Karnak, where the statues originated. Two luminous openings then lead the visitors into the two main exhibition halls, which are illuminated by both daylight and museum lighting.
In the redesigned space, the original architecture of the monumental statuary – dating back to the 17th century – has been fully uncovered, revealing the vaults and high windows characterizing the space. The statues can be bathed in daylight, as they were in their original context at Karnak. Subtly reflective aluminum walls display historical information about the statues, while lending an ethereal quality to the gallery space.
The new arrangement of the monumental statues takes visitors on a journey through an ancient Egyptian temple. The first exhibition hall features two sphinxes facing each other at the center, flanked by standing and seated statues of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. This arrangement evokes the outer spaces of the temple, including the processional avenues and sunlit courtyards. The statue of Seti II, originally placed in front of the king’s chapel at the Temple of Karnak, stands at the hall’s end, marking the pinnacle of the experience.
From here, visitors enter the second hall, designed to reference the temple’s inner spaces endowed with statues of kings and gods. In this hall, Amenhotep II is depicted offering wine to other statues of kings, and a group of statues of kings and gods is arranged chronologically. At the center of the hall is the renowned statue of King Ramesses II. The display concludes with effigies of the god Ptah and a statue of the god Amun, represented as his animal avatar, a ram.
Andrea Tabocchini, Architect and Founder of Andrea Tabocchini Architecture:“From the outset, we all saw this project as an opportunity to redesign a unique exhibition space. Culture must honor the past while remaining alive, evolving, being relevant in the present and inspiring the future.”
In 2024, the Museo Egizio celebrates its 200th anniversary with a series of initiatives aimed at transforming the museum’s architecture, public engagement, and archaeological work. In January 2023, the team led by OMA won the competition to renovate Museo Egizio, which will feature a new covered courtyard called Piazza Egizia and a series of interconnected public urban rooms. The Gallery of the Kings is an integral part of this redesign. The uncovered windows of the gallery reveal the ancient statues to passersby on Piazza Egizia and Via Principe Amedeo. The gallery’s entry area is directly connected to the Arcade urban room through an arched portal that frames an ancient Lotus Column, inviting visitors inside. The full renovation of Museo Egizio is scheduled for completion in 2025.
The design of the Gallery of the Kings is led by David Gianotten and Andreas Karavanas of OMA in collaboration with Italian office Andrea Tabocchini Architecture.
Main Image: The Gallery of the Kings (2024). © Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA and Andrea Tabocchini Architecture.
