ARCHITECTURE 1
JEWEL OF DOHA Designed by IM Pei and housing a collection compiled over 15 years by the Emir of Qatar, Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art is a striking addition to the cultural map – and perfectly timed to tap international interest in the region’s art. By Yvonne Courtney.
The Middle East is among the top emerging art markets in the world, and along the west coast of the Gulf, museums, galleries, auctions and festivals are energising a fast-rising appreciation of the visual arts. Cue Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art, which is catching a growing international interest in Islamic art. Assembled at a cost of millions of dollars, Doha’s collection joins the ranks of the Hermitage, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Berlin’s Museum für Islamische Kunst, the Louvre and the British Museum (which been retained to help plan, open and operate the new museum). It will undoubtedly put Doha on the cultural map, and whatever it might lack in scholarly scope is more than made up for in the sheer glamour and beauty of its building. It is designed by IM Pei, the revered Chinese-American architect who has worked on cultural institutions throughout his career and is probably best known for creating the glass pyramid at the Louvre. Subtle and refined, Pei believes an architect must ‘search for the spirit of a place and integrate history and cultural tradition’. With a distinct absence of glass and a facade virtually free of any openings, at first glance the new museum might appear overpowering and lacking in emotion. However, the clean geometric forms, using variations of the octagon – a familiar motif in Islamic art – and the quality materials (pale limestone from France, American granite and flecked concrete) serve to demonstrate Pei’s fastidious attention to detail. Pei read up on Islam and Islamic architecture and travelled extensively to the Middle East and Egypt. He visited mosques in Damascus, transformed from early Christian churches, and in Turkey, their Ottoman in-
Above: The museum’s beautiful library overlooks the sea. Right: The state-of-the-art building’s austere beauty is particularly inspired by the 9th-century Mosque of Ibn Tulun.
fluences clearly visible. But Pei found the Islamic architecture in Cairo to be the most inspirational. ‘The Doha museum is more influenced by the 9th-century Mosque of Ibn Tulun than any other building. This mosque is very austere and beautiful, its geometry most refined,’ he explains. For the Doha museum, Pei reinterpreted the mosque’s forms to create a secular, contemporary building. Set on an imposing site off the city’s corniche, approached along a ramp lined with date-palm trees, the museum building responds to its context, culturally and physically. Pei also drew inspiration from the desert
light; as the sun moves throughout the day, the shadows dissolve the weight of the museum building in a shifting play of light. Inside, the strong sun is subdued, the atrium lit by a central dome and a solitary majestic window 100 feet high, looking out over the Gulf. Upon entering the museum’s galleries – designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, whom Pei also employed on the interiors of the Grand Louvre – the only sources of light are the fibre-optics that illuminate the display cabinets. The cave-like spaces feature dark Brazilian wood-panelled walls, relieved by the faintest metallic bronze powder. The vitrines sit on grey slab-like tables, their glass panels rising up into the shadows. It is the perfect backdrop for the collection, which, apart from textiles and carpets, comprises mostly small-scale objects.
64 ALEF MAGAZINE March/April 2008
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