DOHA, QATAR - The massive 560,000 square-foot National Museum of Qatar has recently been opened to the public in Doha, the Qatari capital. The museum took a decade to complete but the masterpiece of Ateliers Jean Nouvel has been worth the wait. The museum was originally scheduled to operate on 2016.
The museum is comprised of a series of interlocking discs. With the veiny details on its façade, the museum is also called the "desert rose." The formation created when minerals, including abundant sand grains, crystallize beneath the surface of a salt basin is the inspiration for the architectural character of the newly opened museum.
During the inauguration, Nouvel explained the poetry behind his design, citing how the desert rose is a symbol of the desert as it is an architecture created by time and the desert itself. He further explained that the interior of a desert rose is not a well-known fact and his masterpiece is a typology of intersections making for mysterious interiors as well. The museum is also said to represent Qatari identity. The history of Qatar is showcased in about 1.5 kilometers of galleries. This includes oral history, art, music, poetry, and archaeology. The museum is located on the waterfront corniche of Doha. The majestic building has 114 fountain sculptures in its lagoon, which stretches a length of 900 meters. The pre-fabricated panels are about 76,000 panels, having 3,600 different sizes and shapes.
The museum site is the location of the former palace of the founder of modern Qatar, Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim al-Thani. The "desert rose" is among the top of the growing list of awe-inspiring buildings in Qatar. Also included in the list are the Museum of Islamic Art and the national library.
The discs that comprise the structure were created with massive steel structures. The high-performance concrete panels used for its façade are pre-fabricated which when assembled are compared to fragments that form a crystallized "petal," much like the design basis of the project. In addition, the color of the building is a pale brown, giving the impression that the structure is "of its environment."
The museum designer, Ateliers Jean Nouvel is one of the most prominent design firms with the specialty of combined architecture, urban planning, landscape design, interior design, product design, and graphic design. Some of their other best work includes the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the National Museum of China, and the Tour De Verre in New York, United States.