Musée de la Révolution

Location: Sid Bou Zid, Tunisia
Project Duration: 2022
Status: Competition, First Prize

Project Summary

In approaching this project, a number of questions were raised:

1. What role does a museum play in a city like Sid Bou Zid?

2. Can a building transform a city?

3. Is it important to create an iconic building in this city or not?

4. In a world of images, of Instagrammable moments, is it important to create such an iconic object, especially one that is Instagrammable for taking selfies?

5. Consequently, shouldn’t this iconic-Instagrammable object be the first thing to exhibit in a museum, making the building itself the first thing to exhibit?

6. The last question: should this museum-monument-object-iconic structure speak or remain silent? Take a stance or maintain inertness, or have a level of abstraction such that everyone can interpret it in their own way and define it according to their own convictions?

Eleven years later, everything is still somewhat ambiguous, but what is certain is that this space-time of the museum in Sid Bou Zid has forever changed the history of the city, the country, and humanity. The act of self-immolation by Bouazizi is an act of founding something new, similar to that of Dido and Kahena. It is an act of destruction in itself, hiding a new birth.

In conceiving the project, we adopted the attitude of a visitor, the main actor. The user will first traverse the esplanade, appropriating the open urban space before ascending the stairs. The staircase is of utmost importance in the project, preparing the visitor for the act of the visit.

The Block, symbolizing the block’s strength, was influenced by the story of David and Goliath, the force that breaks everything but disappears afterward, leaving room for a future void. This monolith carries within it its definition, with the strength and delicacy of the breach.