Ritual, procession and place characterise Níall McLaughlin Architects’ competition winning museum dedicated to the history of Christian Baptism and adding to a portfolio of contemplative, sensitive buildings.
Níall McLaughlin Architects has won the international competition for a new museum at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site traditionally recognised as the location of Christ’s baptism. Announced this week by the non-profit Foundation for the Development of the Lands Adjacent to the Baptism Site, the result follows a six-month invited competition, which brought together seven international teams: NMA, AAU Anastas, Studio Anne Holtrop, heneghan peng architects, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO, Toshiko Mori Architect and Trahan Architects and an advisory panel spanning architecture, landscape, museums and heritage.
For NMA, the commission continues a body of work concerned with sacred space, movement and progression. The Bethany museum develops these themes within a different cultural context, yet retains a preoccupation with architecture as a place for contemplation.
The winning proposal choreographs a journey from east to west to create a sequence that contrasts dark and light, wet and dry, open and closed. Visitors move from an open, arid garden, down into the museum of rammed earth chapels and water-filled rifts, to re-emerge into a daylight-filled garden.
The museum sits low within the landscape, slightly concealed, subtly looming into the path of surrounding pilgrimage routes. The proposed materials are locally sourced stone and rammed earth walls, chosen for their visual continuity with the surrounding landscape.
Landscaping design by Kim Wilkie sees wilderness pressed gently against the building while enclosing scented native plants within framed gardens. Integration of landscape, architecture and movement creates and architecture of sensitivity not spectacle – of earth, light and water.
McLaughlin said on the news of their appointment: ‘We are delighted to receive the news that we are the winners of the competition for the Museum of Jesus’ Baptism at Bethany, Jordan. It is an extraordinary site with a profound history. The brief was beautifully written, and the shortlist was exceptionally strong. We felt honoured to be chosen to participate with such an interesting group.
‘The challenge of the design was to find a way to allow the architecture to mediate between a charged landscape and the sacred narratives that arose within it. It demanded a building that could work with allegory. At the same time, the project needed to use local labor, skills, and resources to achieve something with a sense of social responsibility and low carbon expenditure.
‘We now look forward to working with the Foundation to develop the design in dialogue with enthusiastic local and international experts. We relish the opportunity to learn more about this beautiful country.’
