The Grand Egyptian Museum: world-class engineering
Two kilometres from the Pyramids of Giza stands the Grand Egyptian Museum. It is the largest museum ever built dedicated to a single civilisation. It also houses more than 100,000 artefacts, including the complete Tutankhamun collection, spread across 24,000 square metres of permanent exhibition space. Proasur has been part of the international team that has made this milestone possible. Specifically, it contributed its engineering expertise and production capacity to one of the most ambitious museum projects on the planet.
Proasur at the Grand Egyptian Museum
Our work was integrated within a large-scale package of museum installations, based on a conceptual design by Haley Sharpe Design. Altogether, that package covered 15,000 square metres across 12 galleries, four immersive underground caves and nine digital portals. The latter bring visitors closer to the different dynasties of Ancient Egypt.
As part of this project, Proasur carried out the technical development, production and assembly of the caves and the scale model. Both elements demanded meticulous coordination between engineering, production and on-site implementation. They also required constant monitoring of deadlines, procurement and technical adjustments on site.
A large-scale engineering challenge
The greatest challenge was structural. The entire exhibition space had to meet the region’s specific seismic engineering requirements. Consequently, every anchor point and every finish had to be reviewed, without compromising the overall aesthetic. Added to this was a tight schedule: just six months of work. Furthermore, it was necessary to maintain a standard of surface and visual quality commensurate with the scale of the project.
The result was an installation that was approved without reservation by the client. This project thus reinforced Proasur’s expertise in high-specification technical furniture, delivered to tight deadlines that left no room for error.
From the artwork to the world’s most visited museum
Where scaffolding once stood, today there are queues of visitors from all over the world. The Grand Egyptian Museum opened its doors to the public and, in a short space of time, became one of the great cultural attractions on the planet. Proasur was able to follow this transformation closely, from the construction phase through to the finished building.
Moreover, this project is not an isolated case. Proasur has brought its engineering and production capabilities to landmark cultural venues in New York, Kuwait and Oman, among others. For this reason, we will continue exploring these projects in upcoming instalments. All of them demonstrate that, from Asturias, Proasur delivers museum installations with guaranteed quality anywhere in the world.
You can find out more about our experience in museum production and interpretation centres. You can also discover Haley Sharpe’s exhibition design work for the Grand Egyptian Museum.
If you’d like to find out more about international projects like this one, take a look at our portfolio of museums and visitor centres.