The Ayah Project
A museum for Madinah about the oldest question anyone asks. Ayah means a sign, and it also means a verse — the concept is built on that double meaning: the Qur'an tells the reader to look at the heavens, the earth and themselves, and this is a building that asks a visitor to do exactly that. Six rooms carry the journey, from the beginning of the universe to the human being to what we do next with what we know. There are no areas yet and no programme schedule; what exists is the route, the argument and the form.
The concept, in its own words
A journey, not a set of halls
The brief states the vision as becoming “the world’s first ultra-modern museum”, and the mission as inspiring and educating — bridging the gap between faith and science with current technology to explore the signs of creation, time and existence. Everything below follows from that sentence, and the architecture is asked to carry it: the visitor moves through changes of scale, light, sound and information rather than from one exhibition room to the next.
Why now
The four reasons the brief gives
Madinah is the reason for the site rather than a convenience: a city that already receives visitors from every culture in the world, offered one more dimension to the visit — knowledge, contemplation and discovery. Beyond the permanent exhibition the concept carries an academy, a research and dialogue centre with scholars and scientists, rotating galleries, lecture spaces, a children’s discovery lab and a digital platform.
One principle governs the content: credibility. Scientific material is to be developed and reviewed with qualified specialists, Qur’anic interpretation with recognised scholars, and where science is uncertain or where revelation addresses what empirical method does not, the museum says so plainly rather than resolving it for the visitor. The concept is by THE FİKİR by ARTIFEX GROUP.
The views
On film
Talk about a project like this
The enquiry arrives with this project's name on it, so the reply starts from the right drawing.