Interiors

Window

The architect I. M. Pei said, “...people do not stay outside looking at buildings when it is hot ... .[In the Arab world]. ..exteriors are severe, [but the] interiors [are] ... beautiful ... a remarkable variety of patterns and lighting.’

Pei’s touch is always light, his historical references always subtle.  As Oliver Watson says, Pei’s design is ‘accessible ... to those who know about history, and to those who do not...’

The Museum seems to glitter in the mid-day heat.  Instead of an external dome the building is topped by a cube reminiscent of the Middle Eastern wind tower.

In countries where wood suitable to use for spanning large spaces was unavailable, where brick, stone and marble were the building materials, the arch and the dome dictated the development of architecture.

Pei has used the arch to emphasize, not interrupt, the planar exterior of his building design and as a subtle reminder of its architectural heritage.  The simple roman arch, the horse shoe arch, the delicate pointed arch that for many is identified with Islam, all are traced lightly on the external surfaces.

Shadows at Entrance to Museum

It is only the slit like modernist elliptical arches cut into the tower that offer relief from the glare.  Deeply shadowed they are like the eyes of a warrior, protected by a helmet.

Fountain in atrium

At the museum entrance the perspiring visitor treads through bars of shadows that pattern the ground, walks through the massive glass doors and is halted by the shock of the interior. 

The momentary suspension of sensation lifts.  The skin cools, eyes adjust to the absence of glare, voices welcome the visitor.

Beyond the shadowed reception area is a light-filled atrium space, partly illuminated by a 45 metre-high tinted glass window revealing the salt-laden Gulf that surrounds Qatar on three sides.

Looking up to internal faceted dome

The newcomer is immediately drawn to the window, but on looking back across the atrium realizes that there is no position from which this space looks best.  Through his use of stone, concrete, glass, steel and marble Pei has provided a sculptural space in which the visitor is enclosed by, and becomes part of, pattern and light and geometrical variety.

A black marble fountain delineates the space in front of the window. 

Beyond the fountain the eye is drawn upward to the stainless steel faceted internal dome through the oculus of which pours more daylight.

Chandelier below dome and over staircase

Here Pei has played with geometry.  “From circle to octagon to square to four triangular flaps that angle back at different heights to become the atrium’s column supports,” is the description given in Watson’s book.  Yet this array of shapes and angles soars away from the eye.  It is intriguing, never confusing; revealing not obscuring. 

Glass bridges connecting balconies

Below the centre of the dome the floor is inlaid with intricate patterns and a curved double staircase sweeps upward to the U-shaped balconies that are cantilevered around the atrium. 

Between staircase and dome hangs a circular ‘chandelier’ that glows even in this light filled space.

From the top of the staircase the light seems liquid and the glass bridges that connect the balconies become bridges of light on which human figures float in luminous streams.

There is time now, before entering the galleries, before departing this space to go back down the stairs, buy a coffee and sit at one of the tables overlooking the gulf, abandon all thought and merge into this radiance.

Observer

Sunday, 29 August 2010

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Ref:

Watson, Oliver, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, Prestel Verlag Munich.

Light and Heat in Qatar

Qatar vies with Lichtenstein for the position as the richest country in the world. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, came to power through a bloodless coup in 1995. His accession was a turning point for the country. The Sheikh has proclaimed his intention to make his country a centre for culture and education. His second wife Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has been active in helping him achieve this goal. In November 2008 The Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar was opened.

Corniche Doha, Qatar

It is 10.30 in the morning. The temperature outside is 44⁰C with the promise of increasing heat. The plane thuds on to the tarmac and hurtles to a stop in the richest city on earth.

The passengers, oil workers and their families returning from shopping trips to the Emirates, disembark and charge into the dust and heat haze, leaving the lone tourist alone to savour the moment of arrival in a new city.

Parkland facing Museum of Islamic Art Qatar

The hotel shuttle bus driver seems bemused, but enthusiastic, at the idea of the city as a tourist destination.

The trip to the hotel through a tangle of streets lined with crumbling concrete buildings is blocked intermittently by orange and white plastic barricades. Behind these barricades crowds of indentured Asian labourers shovel dirt out of ditches.

The first impression of the city is that the Qataris cannot be accused of flaunting their extraordinary wealth, although

Doha, Qatar’s capital, does have the usual collection of odd-shaped glass-clad high rise buildings and a dust shrouded tower to celebrate the 2006 Asian Games.

On the southern tip of the crescent-shaped bay, at the end of the corniche along which the working men are not allowed to walk, is the jewel in Qatar’s crown.

What a jewel it is. The first sign that true progress has come to the country. The next day, the driver points out the new education and medical precincts - further proof that money is being spent wisely in this country.


But it is the breathtakingly beautiful Qatar Museum for Islamic Arts that has placed Doha on the international map.

This building is I. M. Pei’s design and proof that the creative process burns deeply and strongly to the end of the artistic life.

Entrance to Museum of Islamic Art Doha

I.M. Pei has many great projects in his portfolio, but is probably best known for his controversial upgrading of the Louvre precinct in Paris which opened in 1989.

The story of I. M. Pei’s quest for ‘the essence of Islamic architecture’ is told and re-told in the Middle East. Cordoba in Spain, Fatehpur Sikri in India, the Great Mosque in Damascus, the fort at Sousse in Tunisia, were visited by the architect,but none of these inspired him to begin his design. Finally he came upon the simple lines of an ablution fountain in a Cairo mosque and from this drew the inspiration for the Doha museum.

I. M. Pei's Museum of Islamic Art Qatar

The museum is located on a man- made island sixty metres from shore. It is a stripped back, almost minimalist design which does evoke images of the ninth century ablutions fountain in the mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun in Cairo. But the building is more than an evocation of early Islamic architecture.

Pei has embraced the harsh light and heat of the Arabian peninsula.  The sharply defined facets of the building enhance the interaction not just of light and shade, but of variations of light and shade and the interplay of watery reflections.

As the temperature soars beyond 48 degrees, the water shimmers beneath heat waves, and the building invites the traveller to enter into a promise of a vast cool interior.

Museum of Islamic Art Qatar

Observer
16 August 2010
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