The Great Pyramid

A Tomb for All People
The Great Pyramid can potentially be any human being’s grave or memorial site. As monumental as it is affordable, it serves those of all nationalities and religions. Individuals who are either unwilling or unable to have their ashes buried there can also opt to have a memorial stone placed instead. Stones can be custom designed with any number of colors, images, or relief decorations. The Great Pyramid will continue to grow with every stone placed, eventually forming the largest structure in the history of man.

The Egyptian pyramids were built for eternity but only for one single person. This pyramid is open to every individual. Rather than hastily burying one another or allowing our ashes to be scattered, as a small stone in the pyramid we can remain part of our species’ constantly shifting and ever-expanding tableau.

The Largest Building in the World

The Great Pyramid grows brick by brick; its structure of rock-solid concrete receptacles and memorial stones is set to outlast the coming millennia. Each tomb container will contain an urn with the ashes of a deceased, while memorial stones hold capsules containing other remembrances.

All stones are identical in size and are positioned at random in the Great Pyramid. After only few thousand stones have been laid, the Great Pyramid will have reached massive proportions. Even if only a small percentage of all current and future living decide on a Great Pyramid stone, the monument will outsize the Giza Pyramids very soon. In only a few decades it will be the largest structure our civilization has ever built.

Architectural Contest

We are happy to finally and officially announce the Architectural Competition, that will help shape first ideas of how the area around the Great Pyramid will be developed. Some have rightly noted that a pyramid as we plan it would not need much architectural design and asked why then a competition. So yes: It´s about urban and spatial planning aspects, not essentially about the Great Pyramid-structure.

We have successfully invited five fine architectural firms (A-Z) to submit their ideas until mid November:

The entrants (A-Z):
Ai Wei Wei, Beijing
ArquitectonicaGEO, Miami and New York
Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo
Nikolaus Hirsch, Wolfgang Lorch and Markus Miessen, Frankfurt/M. and London
MADA s.p.a.m., Shanghai and Los Angeles

The jury (A-Z):
Omar Akbar, Architect, Executive Director Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
Stefano Boeri, Architect, Editor ABITARE, Milan
Rem Koolhaas (President), Architect, OMA, Rotterdam
Ingo Niermann, Writer and Journalist, Friends of the Great Pyramid e.V.
Miuccia Prada, Designer and Entrepreneur, Milan

The competition site is situated on the northern edge of Dessau-Rosslau on the largest open and connected plot of land within the city limits. The area is virtually flat and currently used for agriculture.

Notwithstanding the fact that Dessau-Rosslau is for various reasons an excellent location for the project, it is uncertain whether it could be realized there. Participants in the competition are therefore encouraged to use site-independent or modular approaches to the planning that also could be applied to other locations.

We would like to thank everybody involved so much and look forward to seeing most exciting and inspiring submissions.

Full details - www.thegreatpyramid.org