Níall McLaughlin Architects

The museum is an east-west journey. It combines permanent allegorical elements, with flexible galleries. Exhibition spaces are held between deep walls containing displays, circulation, and services. The materials – rammed earth and stone – come from the land nearby and can be built by local labour and resources.

Descending into the earth from an arid wilderness garden you cross a water-filled rift and re-emerge into the light to a fruitful paradise garden. The eastern entrance and western exit face each other across a public square. The facing doorways are a triangle and a circle, emphasizing a life in Christ as the Alpha and Omega. Between them, an open stepped landscape rises onto the roof. We imagined it as an elevated archaeological site with mosaic floors between low stone walls. From this raised public space, you can view the valley of the Jordan River and the pilgrimage route to the Baptism Site.