Doha, Qatar: Lusail Museum, designed by the renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, will have its ceremonial groundbreaking this December.
Chairperson of Qatar Museums H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani made this announcement on the inaugural episode of her podcast, “The Power of Culture.”
The Lusail Museum, set to be a global think tank and a world-class art museum, will find its home in Lusail.
Sheikha Mayassa said: “the Lusail Museum will be a completely new kind of institution rooted in a movement of ideas and perspectives fostering constructive dialogue and debate on the most pressing issues of our time.”
The podcast’s debut featured a conversation with Jacques Herzog, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect, who shared his approach to design and the unique aspects of each project.
He explained that he wanted to do the projects differently, whether it’s a museum or something else, for the simple reason that he don’t want to be pigeonholed into a specific style. “Architecture is made for a specific place so obviously architecture has to respond to that diversity and that’s how museums are very different because on top of the geographical givens, it’s also pragmatically different each time.”
Moreover, Herzog said the the Lusail Museum “is not just [an] architecture, it’s not just investment, but it’s really programmed in a smart way so this new land gain really will live – will become alive and will infuse life – commercial life and culture life – and that’s why I see the Lusail project such an important project for your whole country.”
Discussing materials, Herzog highlighted the importance of using locally sourced materials for the museum. In Qatar, this means utilising the abundant resources like sand, stone, minerals, and even salt. The aim is to create a conglomerate of materials, minimising the need to import resources, he said.
Describing the museum’s shape, Herzog said that the building has a shape like a fragment of a sphere, relating to the universal form of matter. It’s about building the ground for a fragment of the city or a piece of land, becoming the foundation itself.
Herzog elaborated on the holistic concept of the Lusail Museum, stressing that everything – form, ornament, space, and façade – is unified through the use of the same materials. The museum aims to provide diverse and powerful experiences as visitors explore its carved-out spaces.
