RAMALLAH, West Bank — Standing on a hill that looks out over the town of Birzeit, the Palestinian Museum is a cultural oasis whose architecture mimics the surrounding landscape. The museum's hillside gardens and stone walls imitate the stone terraces used in agricultural lands in the Palestinian villages and the building itself is made of limestone quarried locally near Bethlehem.
The museum was designed by Irish architect Heneghan Peng, who won the international competition in 2011. Peng had spent four months in Palestine to familiarize himself with the country's architectural heritage before he submitted his project for a multipurpose center of culture and education. The stone terraces that surrounds the building were built by Jordanian landscape architect Lara Zureikat.
