A 40,000m² desert rose: the new National Museum of Qatar, designed by French architect and Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel, brings the cultural heritage of the desert peninsula to life for the world. In Doha's new museum, which plays with form and scale in a highly special way, ERCO illuminates galleries for temporary exhibitions as well as museum outlets, restaurants and cafés. inspired by a desert rose, a natural phenomenon in which leaf-like crystal clusters form under dry, sandy conditions, the new museum complex consists of 76,000 interlocking discs of different sizes
Lighting: ERCO
Architecture: Jean Nouvel
The museum gift shops impress with undulating timbered walls and ceilings that meander through the rooms like fine sand dunes. Forms from nature were transferred to the architecture and light from ERCO reinforces the dynamics of the flowing structure. Koici Takada Architetects were inspired by the light cave of Dahl Al Misfir. The 40-metre deep cave is a sanctuary in the heart of Doha and consists of fibrous gypsum crystals that glow with slight phosphorescence.
Interior: Koichi Takada Architects
