Oman Across Ages Museum
The Oman Across Ages Museum sits within an extraordinary setting. Emblematic of the Hajjar Mountains of Oman, the architectural design by Cox Architects of Australia took inspiration from the jagged, angular forms of Oman’s primary mountain range, creating a sculptured composition that rises powerfully from the land. Triangulated earthen, three-dimensional plates fold up to create a striking crescendo against the horizon.
The Challenge
The architecture and visitor experience weave a symbolic narrative paralleling the formation of the landscape with the stories of human enlightenment and achievement. The site has been sculpted by wind and water over vast millennia and predominantly consists of ancient rock formations created early in the evolution of the Earth’s crust. These strong, angular forms reflect the energy of the site’s natural setting.
Project Vision
The visitor’s journey sequence tracks the evolution and development within Oman, through the Busa’id and Renaissance periods, emphasising the processes of unity and progress of Oman. The visitor is guided through a sequence of spatial hierarchies from arrival through the primary circulation northwards, increasing in volume and scale as one progresses through the galleries, heightening the sense of drama and expectation.
Spaceagency designed the wayfinding and signage scheme as an integral part of the visitor experience. Given the vast scale of the main exhibition and circulation spaces, the wayfinding was designed to form an intermediary layer, negotiating between the architectural scale and the tangible, human scale.
Design + Execution
In close collaboration with the architects and exhibition designers, we developed a design concept that is born out of this narrative. We analyzed the distinct geometric language of the building and used that to inform the shape and size of wayfinding elements, applying a consistent set of geometric principles to the product and graphic design alike. We analyzed the most intuitive location for signage, reducing the quantity to the extent possible while ensuring the legibility and visibility of signature elements as beacons in the key spaces. The hierarchy of experiences is complemented by signage of varying hierarchies of scale, to ensure an intuitive and fluid visitor circulation. This approach reinforces the visitor journey throughout the building. In the back of house areas, the same language is applied but rendered in simpler, subtler terms.
Further inspired by Oman’s history and the evolution of its key regions, we then traced the building trajectories toward important historic sites in the country, creating a mosaic of shards in the broader landscape leading outward in a seamless continuity toward other Omani visitor sites.
The primary material elements have been carefully selected to reinforce the architectural expression and connect the visitor to the museum’s place and time. The palette of materials emerges as a reflection of the site’s physical setting in its geology.
The result is a wayfinding scheme that is an integral part of the architecture, providing design continuity for the project. The inauguration of the museum has been a source of national pride, both in its beautiful execution as well as the story it has to tell about the culture in which it is rooted.
Project Details
Design Team
Space Agency Design
Photo Credits
Space Agency Design
Open Date
March 2, 2023