Qatar in Colour |
coloured concrete harmonises with
the desert environment, so that the
building appears to grow out of
the ground. Inside, the structure
of interlocking disks continues,
creating an extraordinary variety of
irregularly shaped volumes.
Jean Nouvel says: “To imagine a
desert rose as a basis for design was a
very advanced idea, even a utopian
one. To construct a building with
great curved disks, intersections, and
cantilevered angles – the kind of
shapes made by a desert rose – we
had to meet enormous technical
challenges.
“This building is at the cutting
edge of technology, like Qatar
itself. As a result, it is a total object:
an experience that is at once
architectural, spatial, and sensory,
with spaces inside that exist nowhere
else.”
The museum is organised into three
chapters – ‘Beginnings’, ‘Life in
Qatar’, and ‘The Modern History
of Qatar’ – taking visitors from the
geological period long before the
peninsula was inhabited, through to
the present day. There is also space
for temporary exhibitions.
Because Qatar continues to develop
at such a rapid pace, the work of the
NMoQ is far from finished, however.
It will continue to document the
history of a rising nation through
new exhibits and exhibitions, playing
a vital role in Qatar’s cultural
memory for years to come.
| The restored palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani lies at the heart of the NMoQ
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