A new museum in Palestine is finally opening its doors to the public. The Palestinian Museum is located in Birzeit, Palestine and was designed by Irish architecture firm Heneghan Peng. The museum is the flagship project of the local Taawon Welfare Association, which works to support marginalized communities in Gaza and the people living in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. In 2011, Heneghan Peng won an international competition for their idea of creating a ?museum hub? in an area just 25km north of Jerusalem. The completion of the impressive 3,500 square meter museum and its surrounding 40,000 square meters of landscaping is just the first of a two-phase master plan.

Ultimately, the design team hopes to tie the museum to the land around it by drawing on the rich history embedded into the terraces on which the building now sits. The architects explain, ?The landscape of the Palestine has the ?worked? quality of a city; every element of it has been touched and tells a story of intervention, production, culture, environment, and commerce.? Palestine has obviously had a very complex historical narrative, and the museum’s development is intended to honor its diverse culture and more accurately tell its story to the public.
The building respects the existing nature of the terrain: it undulates sharply, following the kinks inherent to the topography and replicating it in parts to create a direct link between architecture and nature. A series of terraces, all made from...