bensozia: Ateliers Jean Nouvel, National Museum of Qatar

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Huge new museum with 1.5 kilometers of gallery space. At least it doesn't look like every other museum.

The shape is based on the mineral known as the desert rose.

G. Verloren said...: At least it doesn't look like every other museum.

How odd. I had almost the total opposite reaction. "Sigh - yet another modern museum made up out of big angular geometric shapes painted white."

I can appreciate the idea of making it resemble desert rose, but in that case, why leave it a boring white? Why not give it a splash of color appropriate to the mineral?

Even the more bland varieties of desert rose in shades of sandy brown are still more visually striking than this is. And while there are varieties of white desert rose, they're never uniform in color - the interior sections, between the "petals", are still a contrasting earthy color.

I also feel they could have gone for a more organic look, and made the edges and lines just a little less perfectly straight or rounded.

Overall, it ultimately reminds me less of desert rose and more of a bunch of white paper plates mashed together.; April 7, 2019 at 3:53 PM

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