Architecture

Striking museum designed to resemble mankind's earliest tools

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Construction on Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind is due to begin in 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2024
Maqe
Daniel Libeskind's firm Studio Libeskind has unveiled plans for a striking new museum in Kenya that's designed to resemble the earliest tools made by mankind
Maqe
Construction on Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind is due to begin in 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2024
Maqe
Judging from the renders, Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind takes its place very well among the landscape 
Maqe
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Daniel Libeskind's firm Studio Libeskind has unveiled plans for a striking new museum in Kenya that's intended to resemble hand axe tools made by early man. Aiming for a 2024 opening, the museum will explore the history of humans, the science behind climate change and evolution, and more.

While there are no images of the interior available yet, the exterior of the museum looks, from the renders at least, to take its place among the Kenyan landscape very well indeed. It will be situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking an area called Rift Valley in northern Kenya, where the most complete skeleton of early man known to date, Turkana Boy, was found.

The project was commissioned by conservationist, politician and paleoanthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey (who is credited with discovering Turkana Boy) and will be named Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind.

Judging from the renders, Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind takes its place very well among the landscape 
Maqe

"The museum will be a place for discovery, wonder, and contemplation," says Libeskind. "Through the architecture and exhibitions, Ngaren will anchor all walks of life to Africa: the epicenter of human existence. I created a series of dramatic spaces within the museum that are architecturally dynamic and provocative, creating a unique context for the museum's exhibitions that does not pacify artifacts, but enhances and enlivens them."

The team aims to break ground on the project in 2022 and to help bring that about, is running a crowdfunding campaign. As of writing it has raised US$4.06 million of a $7 million goal. It's not clear whether or not the museum will still go ahead if the full amount isn't raised.

Source: Studio Libeskind

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2 comments
ljaques
Wrong, on so many levels... Prolly consulted with Algore and Fake Science Guy Nye who'll tell us that polar bears can't swim and the freaking world is on fire.
Wasting millions on architecture to resemble a stone axe? <snort>
I'll bet they don't mention the 7,419 different parameters they've added to the modeling software over the decades and STILL don't have it right.
piperTom
While I have some sympathy for ljaques's negative response, this project appears to be crowd funded (not gubment funded). So, the donors like the stone axe theme? Okay, it's art.