Dadu - Children’s Museum of Qatar, one of the projects featured in Building a Creative Nation.
Doha: On the occasion of 18th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Qatar Creates will present the documentary exhibition Building a Creative Nation, the first presentation outside the country of Qatar’s next generation of cultural institutions. Hosted at ACP – Palazzo Franchetti, the exhibition will be on view from May 14 to November 26.
Building a Creative Nation, designed by 2 x 4, focuses on five new cultural venues being developed by Qatar Museums in Qatar with internationally acclaimed architectural practices Elemental, Herzog and de Meuron, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Philippe Starck, and UNStudio. The new developments will be operated by Qatar Museums which is responsible for preserving and enlarging Qatar’s cultural endowment by overseeing the country’s growing network of museums, heritage sites, festivals, public art programme, and more.
The exhibition brings together renderings, photographs, sketches, studies, models, video, as well as immersive content, to present each project as a considered architectural response to an aspect of Qatar Museums’ programme of cultural nation-building.
Whether new construction or adaptive reuse, each future institution demonstrates Qatar’s commitment to architecture as a strategic tool for achieving the country’s forward-looking cultural objectives, outlined in the Qatar National Vision 2030, chiefly its goal to grow an innovative and diversified society through investment in the creative industries.
H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums said: “When the opportunity to support the exhibition of Kengo Kuma on the occasion of the Venice Architectural Biennale 2023 arose, we felt that it would be a great moment to share the cultural projects that Qatar is embarking on after its successful hosting for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The cultural, economic, and socio-political relationship between Qatar and Italy has always been strong, as has the relationship between Qatar and Japan. It is therefore a great moment in our modern history to reveal the extent of Qatar’s cultural programme, amongst one of the greatest displays of architecture and most important showcases anywhere for epoch-making designs.”
Projects featured in Building a Creative Nation are: Art Mill Museum, architect is Elemental led by Alejandro Aravena; Lusail Museum, Architect: Herzog and de Meuron; Qatar Auto Museum, Architect: Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), led by Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal; Qatar Preparatory School, Architectural concept: Philippe Starck; and Dadu, Children’s Museum of Qatar, Architect: UNStudio.
These new developments build on the legacy of Qatar’s continuing investment in the world-class museums and cultural spaces that have opened in the country over the last 15 years. They include: Museum of Islamic Art, architect: I. M. Pei (2008); Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, architect: François Bodin (2010); Fire Station, architect: Ibrahim Al Jaidah (2015); Qatar National Library, architect: OMA (2017); National Museum of Qatar, architect: Jean Nouvel (2019); M7, architect: John McAslan + Partners (2021); and 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, architect: Joan Sibina (2022).
