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Pei’s touch is always light, his historical references always subtle.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.