Museum of Petroleum

As a result of a competition lead by Sonangol on behalf of the nation’s Ministry of Petroleum, this consortium wanted to create a public project that embodied a celebration of the 50 years of the Angolan oil industry in recognition of its crucial importance for the country’s economy. The Museum of Petroleum of Angola will be an outstanding repository of the collective memory on the mining and drilling industries, as well as a contemporary platform for a much-needed pedagogic and scientific debate on its long-term sustainability.

The site for the museum is actually one of the very few on-shore existing wells in Angola, which, due to Luanda’s seemingly endless urban sprawl of the last two decades, became fully surrounded by a built-up suburban environment. Having in mind the massive numbers of projected visitors from schools and families, the scheme includes vast landscape spaces, with refreshment areas and complementary exterior activities, in addition to parking facilities. An amphitheatre, a garden pavilion, a lake and a garden with shading areas, are all part of this arrival atmosphere.

The building in itself is devised as a system of shaded open-air courtyards
that generate a visiting circuit through a sequence of patios. The façade skin, inspired by the over- layered pattern of the palm leaf, resembles the complexity of the pipework render of the typical industrial oil facilities. One of the patios will feature an original full-size prospecting tower. The complex includes auditorium, restaurant and cafeteria, museum shop, library, educational service, changing exhibit hall, in addition to landscaped areas that allow for an yaerly estimated 1.6 million one-day trip visitors.