World renowned architect IM Pei was coaxed out of retirement to design the new Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, and the result is an iconic building that draws on influences throughout the Islamic world.
The museum building sits within a 150ha park that has been transformed by Halcrow from reclaimed land into a work of art in its own right.
The £30 million park and peninsula incorporates a 800m long, palm tree alley with over 200 date and palm trees along a formal granite promenade finished with lighted walkways, ramps and steps; a 150ha rolling green park landscape with pools, fountains, a lake and an oasis surrounded by plants and animals indigenous to the Middle East; and a 50ha peninsula on reclaimed land, comprising a rocky enclosure and a cove terminus with a viewing plaza to provide vistas of the museum and Doha Corniche.
Halcrow provided a variety of services including design, construction, cost management, landscaping and irrigation, architecture, site supervision and structural engineering.
The project posed many technical challenges, including the need to supply 4,500m3 of water a day to the park. All the park’s water storage tanks, pump rooms and electrical control rooms are buried underground for aesthetic reasons. This created another set of engineering challenges due to the very high, and tidally influenced, water table.
Qatar has a policy of steadily acquiring works of art, turning the desert emirate into an art-lover’s paradise. The museum’s creation is also part of an attempt to foster a greater understanding of Islam around the world.
The collection includes a 10th-century Andalusian bronze hind decorated with arabesque palm leaves, a 12th-century woman-bird on glossed ceramics from Syria, and a white jade amulet from Moghul India.