Jerusalem Natural History Museum | o2a studio

Drawing from the Karst geology prevalent in the site, the museum is designed as a largely underground complex, creating a subterranean human flow of museum-goers in contrast to the natural flow of the topography above ground. A series of open dolines (Karstic sinkholes) create a vertical connection between the museum and the open landscape occupying its roof, and allowing light and air to pour into the museum spaces underneath. A number of these dolines are occupied by perforated red steel boxes housing different programs of the museum. Dotting the scenery above, these boxes highlight their artificiality, standing in sharp contrast to the green setting on the roof of the museum.
From Ruppin Boulevard, the site is preserved as an open green landscape, providing  the city with a vast public space freely accessible to all, and as a direct continuation of the public promenade planned for this artery.
From the Museum Boulevard (Burla Street), the museum presents an iconic facade comprised of CNC-cut stone panels with a glass backdrop.
Together with the green open spaces inhabiting its roof, the museum introduces a multifaceted display of variation between the notion of the artificial and the natural, establishing a site at once both domesticated  and wild - aSecond Nature