{"id":255156,"date":"2025-11-01T09:33:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/255156\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T09:33:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:33:18","slug":"the-museum-of-jesus-baptism-shares-proposed-designs-from-shortlisted-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/255156\/","title":{"rendered":"The Museum of Jesus\u2019 Baptism shares proposed designs from shortlisted firms"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August, seven international architecture firms were shortlisted<\/a> to design a new museum at the baptismal site of Jesus Christ in Bethany, Jordan. Those shortlisted were: AAU Anastas<\/a>, heneghan peng architects<\/a>, N\u00edall McLaughlin Architects<\/a>, Studio Anne Holtrop<\/a>, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO<\/a>, Toshiko Mori Architect<\/a>, and Trahan Architects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The museum is endorsed by His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Foundation for the Development of the Lands Adjacent to the Baptism Site is the client, and the project will be funded in part by donors from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n

Design proposals by the seven shortlisted firms were shared today by Malcolm Reading Consultants. Renderings show how each architect has opted to respond to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Commonalities that can be observed in the competition proposals include the use of low-slung barrel vaults, the sourcing of local materials, and meandering water trails.<\/p>\n

Below are the shortlisted proposals, accompanied by brief descriptions. The winning proposal will become the signature building in the masterplan for the Baptism Development Zone, a 340-acre zone adjacent to the Baptism Site.<\/p>\n

\"\"AAU Anastas envisions a museum that blends into the terrain. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\nAAU Anastas<\/p>\n

AAU Anastas is based in Palestine, France, and Jordan. In collaboration with landscape designer Florent Clier, exhibition designer dUCKS, engineering group Webb Yates, and lighting consultant Studio Gelatic\u2014the studio\u2019s proposal<\/a> would be built using local basalt. It responds to the Great Rift Valley\u2019s intense heat, low oxygen, and vanishing water.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe museum would be built using local basalt. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

In elevation, the design blends into the terrain, and perhaps evokes SANAA at Grace Farms, a serpentine roof supported by pilotis. Below grade, a cavernous vault would offer respite from the sun. Visitors would walk along a meandering path, next to water.<\/p>\n

\"SubterraneanSubterranean spaces would be lined with water paths. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

\u201cAs water disappears,\u201d AAU Anastas shared in a statement, \u201cthe museum becomes a vessel for memory, registering environmental shifts and sustaining faith not through preservation, but through a dynamic relationship with the land, time, and atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe design by the Irish office envisions a series of pergolas that lead visitors to the museum. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\nheneghan peng architects<\/p>\n

In 2016, heneghan peng architects completed<\/a> the Palestine Museum in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem. The Irish office is now working together with landscape design offices Agence Ter and Lara Zureikat, exhibition design office Cookies, Arup, and lighting consultant Kardorff on the baptismal site competition in Jordan.<\/p>\n

\"VisitorsVisitors would enjoy verdant gardens. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

The design proposal<\/a> by heneghan peng architects considers the geology and stratigraphy of the site. Visitors would enter the building through a series of pergolas, perhaps like what Christo and Jeanne-Claude ideated in Central Park.<\/p>\n

\"GentlyGently curved barrel vaults would crown the space. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

Low-slung vaulted roofs, with exposed masonry details, would crown the exhibition areas, echoing those at Louis Kahn\u2019s Kimbell Art Museum.<\/p>\n

\"UmbrellaUmbrella columns denote the main entry in the proposal by N\u00edall McLaughlin Architects. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\nN\u00edall McLaughlin Architects<\/p>\n

London-based N\u00edall McLaughlin Architects is collaborating with Kim Wilkie Landscape, exhibition design firm Nissen Richards Studio, Arup, and lighting consultant Studio ZNA. The design<\/a> is made of rammed earth and stone.<\/p>\n

Visitors would be transported from water feature to a lush garden. Two facing doorways, shaped like a triangle and a circle, emphasize \u201ca life in Christ as the Alpha and Omega.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VisitorsVisitors would immerse themselves in a cavernous chamber. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\n\"CircleCircle and triangle doorways face another. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

Umbrella columns, perhaps evocative of the kind Pier Luigi Nervi drew up for the The Palace of Labor in Turin, Italy, denote the main entry. Elevated perches would provide optimal views of the Jordan River and the pilgrimage route to the Baptism Site.<\/p>\n

\"OrangeOrange trees would be planted in the garden. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

\"StudioStudio Anne Holtrop conceived a single, expansive roof that follows the natural topography. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\nStudio Anne Holtrop<\/p>\n

Based in the Netherlands and Bahrain, Studio Anne Holtrop is teaming up with landscape design offices Atelier Miething and Mazen Daqaq, exhibition design studio Imagination, engineers at Atkins Realis, and lighting consultancy Rogier van der Heide.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe plane would be punctured at certain moments with apertures. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

Studio Anne Holtrop conceived<\/a> a single, expansive roof that follows the site\u2019s natural topography. Geometric apertures would puncture the plane, allowing in natural light, evocative of the Pearling Path Museum and Entry in Bahrain by Valerio Olgiati.<\/p>\n

\"AA wading pool will be located at the heart of the museum. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

In elevation, the plane contrasts with the ebbs and curves of the Great Rift Valley. A tree nursery would be located under Studio Anne Holtrop\u2019s proposal, supporting plant research and transplantation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO proposed a museum with, in plan, an orthogonal grid broken up by apertures, conical forms, and other moments. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\nTatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO<\/p>\n

The proposal<\/a> by Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO is rooted in the concept of baptism, namely the immersion in geometry and water that baptism entails. The architects envision a low-lying plane supported by columns. In plan, the orthogonal grid is broken up by conical forms, apertures, and other moments.<\/p>\n

\"\"Visitors enter via a pathway dotted with large rock formations. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\n\"SpacesSpaces would open up to oculi, and other architectural features. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO partnered with landscape design firm Bureau Bas Smets, engineering group Sener, and lighting consultant CUBE.BZ.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s proposal is inspired by the \u201cgeometric order of the cultivated fields and the organic, meandering flows of the wadi systems\u201d that manifest at the site, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO said.<\/p>\n

Inside, clerestories open to the elements would wash the space in diffused light. A water pathway would flow through the site, naturally cooling it.<\/p>\n

\"ToshikoToshiko Mori envisions a series of barrel vaults that fan out from a single point. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\nToshiko Mori Architect<\/p>\n

For the museum, Toshiko Mori Architect envisions a modest, contemplative sequence of structures.<\/p>\n

In plan, a series of barrel vaults would fan out from a single point, not unlike the proposal by heneghan peng architects, except the latter\u2019s is more rectilinear.\u00a0Pavilions and gardens that explore botany, geology, archaeology, and anthropology are speckled throughout the site in Toshiko Mori\u2019s proposition.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe vaults would emulate the context\u2019s terrain. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\n\"ClerestoriesClerestories would provide natural daylight. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

Mori is collaborating with landscape designers at West 8, exhibition design office Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects, Arup, and lighting consultancy Kilt Planning.<\/p>\n

\"\"From above, the museum propsal by Trahan Architects would blend into the landscape. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)
\nTrahan Architects<\/p>\n

Trahan Architects looked to the valley and ecology of the region to inform the design of its below-grade museum that enhances the existing tributary system.<\/p>\n

Together with landscape design firm Doxiadis, exhibition design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Buro Happold, and lighting consultancy Tillotson Design Associates\u2014Trahan Architects conceived swaths of native plantings that make up the sunken museum\u2019s roof plane, and shape paths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe museum is a peaceful node along a pilgrimage route, fostering stillness through humble architecture built from locally sourced rammed earth,\u201d Trahan Architects noted. \u201cVisitors descend into the Earth, then slowly ascend toward the sacred site, mirroring the Baptismal act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Surface materials would evoke earthly stratifications. (Courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants)<\/p>\n

The competition winner will be announced in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In August, seven international architecture firms were shortlisted to design a new museum at the baptismal site of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-255156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}