Memory & Peace Museum and Library

With the desire of promoting Islamic art, culture and thought, AIM Hane­mian Architects has designed a “Memory and Peace Museum and Library”, dedicated to the great cultural heritage of the Moslem world on the threshold of the 21st century. The institution, with the great intellectual and religious prestige that will inevitably be attached to it, will be a considerable asset for whichever country commissions the building, making an impact throughout the world as well as in the specific Arab and Moslem spheres.

In designing the building, AIM Hanemian Architects was inspired by the geo­metric decorative principles of Arab and Islamic art and architecture. Circles, whether open or closed, intertwined or interlocking, are eternal links with the cosmos, and, as such, are at the very heart of the craft tradition.

They are to be found everywhere in designs and patterns of all types.

AIM Hanemian Architects has designed a structure consisting of load-bea­ring rings one meter across and sixteen meters in diameter, dividing up the spaces according to the decorative principles referred to above. The 100,000 square meters floor space of the MPML is spread over buildings suspended from 260 rings. As the floor surfaces are raised above the lower part of the rings, arcades designed in an original style link the gardens and walkways and provide protection from the sun. The 30 degrees incline and the cluste­ring into seven groups – symbolic number – provide a dynamic appearance for the whole project.

The MPML will be a documentary resource for the history, geography, eco­nomics and philosophy of the Islamic world as well as modern science and technology. It will also house a museum of Islamic art.