LANDFORM                    BUILDING

The Museum of Islamic Arts - Qatar

I. M. Pei

 

About the designers:

 

The museum of Islamic arts is situated on the Corniche aligning to the West Bay financial area and the harbor of Doha, the capital of Qatar. It was designed by architect I. M. Pei, famous for his Louvre Pyramid project. Pei was requested to construct this structure by the royalty of Qatar, the Al-Thani family, when he obliged and returned from his retirement for this project, making it his last grand design. As per Pei's request J. M. Wilmotte was taken on as the interior designer of the structure, who had also worked on the Louvre with him. Thereby, a team led by Wilmotte within Wilmotte Associates from France that included many isometric, lighting and other consultants, together with Baytur Construction co. of Turkey, and of course the grand designer Pei finished this project and opened it to the public on 8th December 2008.

 

First impression: 

 

Witnessing the grand opening of this structure in person, the first impression I had of it immediately hit closer to home. Without even knowing many facts about the structure I could immediately see that Pei had indeed studied Modern Islamic architecture to a great degree before completing his designs. The easiest method of demonstrating this fact is to simply study the exterior of the structure, which included flat roofs, followed by a cubist form of geometric progression and a singular earth color, all extremely popular Middle Eastern/ Islamic architectural features. Thereby, one could easily claim that this structure showcases landform building very well in relation to geographic, cultural and climactic situations, even though it may not immediately seem so because it is surrounded by water, which is somewhat of an opposite landscape than what it represents.

 

The Structure:

 

The exterior of the structure is strong, simple and clean. I say strong here since the focal point of the structure where the emphasis lies – the 5-storey atrium with a central oculus – is symmetrical, and thereby balanced, giving it a visual weight. The color and texture of the material seen in the exterior may also be another reason for this visual strength. Cubism, a popularly used style by Pei, and the box rotation seen within the cubes is also something exciting about this structures exterior. This is because it plays on light and shadow, thereby utilizing the blazing desert sun to its maximum potential. When analyzing the exterior from afar, it immediately looks like a pyramid even though it indeed does not possess that tetrahedron shape. Making the cubes smaller from storey to storey therefore could definitely be a nod to the pyramid structure as well as other Islamic architectural structures around the globe.

 

The site:

 

Another vital detail about the overall exterior of this structure is its site. The site chosen for this structure is not one that previously existed. As seen through [Image 1] the West Bay area is crowded with skyscrapers that have many technological and other ornamental powers at their disposal. So when Pei was requested to design a museum that represents Islamic architecture and heritage, he did not want this structure to be engulfed and surrounded, without any breathing space or even respect. Therefore, the site this structure is on is a man made isle that was created purely for the reason of isolating the structure and giving it space to breath. This is also the reason that the exterior of the structure has a park, which invites people in, in a very soothing way. It helps the movement of the guests and brings them toward the central axis of the site that leads to the singular main entrance to the museum.

 

So overall, the exterior of this museum displays simplicity in its form, with a pure geometric progression within the focal point, and nothing but small arched windows within these cubes with regular intervals, which leads us to the buildings organization and plans.

 

organization:

 

The organization of this structure is geometric, and has a rhythm to it, from one storey to the other. There are 5 floor plans as well as plans for the atrium and the tower [Gallery] and they yet again emphasize the practice of geometric progression within this structure. It shows a unity and variety in its pattern. The unity is seen in how the light coming through the oculus is spread across the open centre of the structure, and vary within the internal galleries which are in turn very dark and cold due to the dark gray porphyry clad walls [Pictures unavailable due to museum restrictions. However, it can be explored through the virtual tour of Google C.I]. Another exciting fact about the organization of the structure is how if any cube, room or area from Pei’s calculations were taken at random, they provide us with the 'Golden Proportions' – the use of the Golden Ratio and Golden Section. This could mean multiple things in accordance to the cosmos and so on, but I personally believe that this portrays how the museum is in a way natural and organic, though it seems unlikely due to its rigidness. The reason these proportions portray the 'organic' is because the golden section is a wondrous calculation found in every single part of nature [highlighted in green within some sections and elevations of the structure for general understanding]. Similar to this, there are many other details within this structure worth considering. One of the basic details of such are fine materials used to build this structure.

 

Materials:

 

• Cream-colored magny,

• Chamesson limestones (from France),

• Jet mist granite (from the United States)

• Stainless steel (from Germany),

• Dark gray porphyry,

• Lacewood (from Brazil), 

• Architectural concrete, are the main materials used within this structure, and as noted they are all imported from many different countries to maintain a grand quality within the construction.

The finishes of these materials were smooth and rough, clean and simple. It is smooth and rough because even though it is visually very smooth due to its uniformity, to the touch it feels like rough stone or sandpapered material. There is a good reason for this as well. As my initial impression suggests, the designers had thought about the climactic affects within the site, and since this is a country with many deserts and thereby sandy wind and even sand storms at times, having an exterior that supports a sandy texture is helpful to keep the structure looking clean even after a raging sand storm passes through. This then brings us to the use of earth colors as well, which is also for the most part due to the same geographic and climactic reasons.

 

Connection to culture: 

 

Between all the modern skyscrapers seen in the background, though this structure does showcase modernism, it does it in accordance to ancient and traditional Islamic architecture, thereby preserving culture. Thus, the spectators' relationship towards this structure is very personal if the person is from the same community, and extremely educational if it is a foreigner. For me, as an ex-citizen of Qatar, it is a reminder of home as well as the history of Arabic culture, especially because the unseen villas of Arabic suburbia follow the same format of architecture (flat roof, cubic, earth colors). This also brings Qatar prestige and puts the country on a map as a hub for culture, especially since it now houses one of the largest Islamic art collections of the world boasting artifacts from Spain to Turkey to Iraq to Central Asia.

 

In conclusion, though this structure does not look exactly like a geographically related landform to many at first glance due to its site location (the surrounding water and luscious parks), the organization, materials and geometric proportions, when looked at deeper, or to someone of the Arabic culture, helps the structure look like a resounding image of a sand dune, a pyramid or a following of a domestic structure that is built to withstand the many climactic offerings of the geographic region, which are the sand filled deserts.

 

So overall, I believe that this is a great example of landform building because it represents cultural norms, adaptations to weather, heritage, the Islamic religion, natural phenomena like the Golden Section and so much more. And above all, the fact that the use of simple things like singular earth colors, cubic forms, or flat roofs that were originally used to avoid issues caused by sandstorms and such, represent not just landforms, but in extension, an entire group of building in itself, Islamic/Arabic architecture.