The Guardian Museum

Accumulated relics, protected lands and iterated stages of history,anchored change

The city that sits balanced between the coast of the Mediterranean at north and cradled by the Saharan desert from the south, Tripoli throughout history, have gone through numerous reigns, empires ascended and empires have fallen, distant lands have sought to conquer it, and have succeeded, some briefly, some for decades and centuries, leaving imprints, relics that signify historical scenes of their time of power, of their attempts to dominate and establish their foreign habitats atop the soil and among the local dwellers of this country.

This project is a reproduction of those times, a mimic of the victories and defeat, of the duration of power and the essence of those dynasties, combined in a single time frame that is present, a reiterative machine that sits by the sea, guard of whats to come and keeper of what has come, navigating those whom bypass to and amid a rapid momentum of the vital and changing periods of past times.

The majority of Libyans today, lack knowledge of the vital times of their history, this has resulted in an extensive uneducated chunk of society that continue to repeat the faults of past times, resulting in yet more wars, schools do commence history education in their curriculum, however, the majority of individuals that this project targets, are those whom alter history, causing visible change, be it, a bad or a good one, granted that change is almost always associated with the concept of complete eradication, those types of individuals usually fail to excel academically, poverty may contribute partly, but lack of purpose and thus of attention, is the central cause, the sort of individuals that choose to learn for themselves rather than be taught, but what’s to influence the collection of that knowledge, the constitution of that purpose? What element affecting their daily whirl of life that will urge them to broaden their awareness?

A war history podium, a museum, that sits distinctively horizontal amidst a vertical fabric, adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, among the stakes of highrise buildings, composed of separate platforms each raised above the other, a conflict of surfaces, linked by fortresses enclosing vertical flow, each platform exhibits one historical era of reign, the visitor rises gradually and circularly along the platforms that signify the pass of time, while the observer does maintain optical connection to the past and the future, however by a contradiction to reality, a reverse of some sort, the concealed part the one unseen, is of the present, secured still, beneath the whirl of time.

The platforms are enclosed by six forms that manifest anchored chaos, tied into an unordered whole, a foreboding form of matter intimidating as well as entrancing passersby, luring them in, above and central to the form, extending from the threshold of the gate to the top, is a luminous portal of light, that transmits geometric forms of natural light to strategic spots within the display platforms, out by the sea and sky is yet the largest platform, exposed for all to see, for those who are near and those that reside far beyond the sea, a podium that is dedicated to present time, to the diverse incidents that manifest daily, a record replaying each incident visibly and loudly with no constrains nor shields, a single space, seen by all, ominous to foe, and celebratory of peace.