Oman and its history

Some 7,000 artifacts, city maps and life-size replicas of ships, complemented by a host of audiovisual and interactive material, will go to make up Oman’s National Museum, to open at the end of 2014. The aim is to recreate the history of the country through its most significant events and the best combination of conventional resources and latest technology.

The project has been placed in the hands of ACCIONA Productions and Design, chosen by the Omani government to carry out the technical development and museological execution of the museum, a contract worth 18 million euros.

Occupying 4,000 m2 and 12 rooms holding over 250 display cases, this is one of the most challenging projects the Company has been involved, given the large size of the collection. There will also be a gallery for temporary exhibitions, a storage area that can be visited, a conversation space and a children’s classroom.

Interactive and audiovisual resources designed to present the exhibition’s context will contribute both games and learning material to the visit, which will culminate in the showing of the film, Oman in History in the museum’s theater. This spectacular production, which uses an 8.3 megapixel screen, was shot in 4K ultra high definition (UHDTV) and will include some extraordinary beautiful aerial film.

Within APD’s ‘social innovation’ concept, used in all the Company’s projects, the Oman National Museum will be adapted so that people with special needs can also enjoy the heritage on display, converting it into the first museum for blind people in the whole of the Middle East and the first in Oman that will be accessible to people with reduced mobility.

CONTRACT SIGNING

The signing of the contract, which took place at the beginning of April in the current Oman National Museum in Muscat, could count upon the presence of His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, Minister for Heritage and Culture, the President of the National Museum Board and, for ACCIONA, the ACCIONA Production & Design Business Director, Juan Jesús Caballero Trigo.

• A contract worth 18 M€ the project is ACCIONA Production & Design’s biggest in Middle East.
• More than 250 DISPLAY CASES holding some 7,000 PIECES constitute a significant challenge in museological arrangement.
• This will be the FIRST MUSEUM ADAPTED for blind people in the Middle East.