Waterfront landmark will include a floor featuring interiors from important Islamic historical buildings
Qatar Museums has revealed images of Herzog & de Meuron’s proposals for a landmark art institution that will be the “cultural anchor” for Lusail City, north of Doha.
The concept for the practice’s Lusail Museum is described as a “vertically layered souk, or miniature city contained within a single building”. The five-storey, 52,455sq m building will house Orientalist art and aims to explore the movement of people and ideas across the globe.
The top floor of gallery space at the museum will feature four abstract replicas from the interiors of important historical buildings inserted as anchor spaces. They are the dome covering Murat III’s bedroom pavilion in the Palace of Topkapi in Istanbul; the dome of the Jameh Mosque in Natanz; the Ablution fountain in the courtyard of Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo; and the Aljafaria dome in Zaragoza.
The museum will also have a library, an auditorium, a shop, a café, prayer space, and a roof-top terrace.
Lusail Museum will be located on Al Maha Island and features a rough, earthen and sand-like exterior – in response to its coastal setting.
The building’s plan takes the form of a circle. Three intersecting spheres shape the volume of the building into two distinct parts: one resembling a full moon, the other a crescent moon wrapping around it.
Double curvatures derived from the spheres form a crescent-shaped internal street that is naturally lit from above. It will connect the entrances of the museum to the central lobby and other public functions.
The museum is one of three projects announced by Qatar Museums at the Doha Forum in 2022. The others are Art Mill by Alejandro Aravena and Qatar Auto Museum by OMA.
No target opening date has been announced for Lusail Museum.
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