INSTITUTION
Are the commercial spaces
the real highlight of Jean
Nouvel’s Qatar museum?
DOHA – Jean Nouvel’s National Museum
of Qatar in Doha has justly won headlines
for its sculptural bravura: a composition of
interlocking discs inspired by the desert
rose mineral. The museum has the plan of a
necklace enclosing a large open events space
and is joined at the top by the historical fort
that formerly housed the royal family. The
discs play off the orthogonal walls of the
old structure and dip to preserve a view of
this beloved landmark from the coast road.
Almost as exciting are the interior spaces
created by Koichi Takada, a Japanese architect
who works out of Sydney.
The museum is a powerful expres-
sion of Qatari identity at a time when this
arid peninsula has been blockaded by its
neighbours. A stylized portrait of the Emir- oddly reminiscent of Che Guevara in its
macho pose – appears on buses and build-
ings as a rallying call to the native popula-
tion of 350,000 and the more than 2 million
expatriates and guest workers. The museum
reinforces the state’s claim to uniqueness and
the galleries tell the story of its rise, from an
impoverished outpost of pearl fishers and
traders to the richest country in the world
per capita, buoyed by its huge oil and natural
gas reserves.
In contrast to many museums that are
designed as instant landmarks with conven-
tional white-box galleries, Nouvel worked
closely with a planning committee headed
by H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad
bin Khalifa Al Thani, sister of the Emir, and
impresario for many cultural initiatives in
Qatar. As a result, the museum was planned
holistically, as a fusion of architecture and
display, and there is a direct link between the
tilted planes of the exterior and the subtle
shifts of the interior walls and floors. Appro-
priately for a city that was once oriented
towards the sea, one feels as if one were
on a gently rocking boat as one progresses
through the galleries.
This would pose a challenge to cura-
tors in most museums. The tilted walls of
Fernando Romero’s Soumaya Museum in »
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