The National Museum of Qatar is another hotly-anticipated project of French architect Jean Nouvel, as finally nearing completion in Doha desert. Nouvel's new museum is spread at site with a series of interlocking disc-formed surfaces and spaces, creating unexpected and surprising meetings. 

Qatar Museums today announced that the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) will officially be opened to the public on March 28, 2019, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. 

The immersive and experiential NMoQ will tell the story of Qatar and its people from more than 700 million years ago through to today, giving voice to Qatar’s rich heritage and culture and expressing a vibrant community’s aspirations for the future. 

The new museum embraces, as its centerpiece, the restored historic Palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani (1880-1957), son of the founder of modern Qatar: a building that in former times was both the home of the Royal Family and the seat of government, and was subsequently the site of the original National Museum. 

Covering a total of 40,000-square-meter (430,000-square-foot) space, the building incorporates the Palace while seamlessly integrating innovative artworks commissioned from Qatari and international artists, rare and precious objects, documentary materials, and interactive learning opportunities. 

Nouvel’s dynamic architectural design echoes the geography of Qatar while evoking the history and culture of the nation.The architect takes inspiration from the desert rose growing out of the ground and situated around the original Emiri palace. 

The new museum will be comprised of a series of interlocking discs - having various dimensions and sizes, the structure presents an organic and fluid geometry as if it is rising from the ground, and these discs are scattered irregularly to create a new spatial organisation on a rectangular plot.

"Qatar has a deep rapport with the desert, with its flora and fauna, its nomadic people, its long traditions. To fuse these contrasting stories, I needed a symbolic element. Eventually, I remembered the phenomenon of the desert rose: crystalline forms, like miniature architectural events, that emerge from the ground through the work of wind, salt water, and sand," said Jean Nouvel. 

"The museum that developed from this idea, with its great curved discs, intersections, and cantilevered angles, is a totality, at once architectural, spatial, and sensory," added Nouvel. 

In general, the building will contain the 8,000-square-metre of permanent exhibition space, 2,000-square-metre area for temporary, rotating exhibitions, 220-seat auditorium, two retail outlets, two restaurants and a café, a dedicated food forum, preserving culinary traditions, research centre and laboratories and a park filled with indigenous plants.  

"Qatar is an ancient land, rich in the traditions of the desert and the sea, but also a land that hosted many past civilizations. While it has modernized its infrastructure, it has still remained true to the core cultural values of our times," said Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums. 

"We look forward to sharing new museum experiences with our proud and diverse communities, as well as welcoming international guests in the spring of next year."

Jean Nouvel's firm Ateliers Jean Nouvel has been working on the project since 2010. The building was originally scheduled to open in 2015 but due to a minor fire exploded near the site of the new museum, some detailed facilities on the construction site and the installation of art pieces have delayed the opening of the museum. 

Take a closer look at the interior images of the museum. Jean Nouvel also completed the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi. The studio recently completed a new office tower in Marseille, France.

All images © Iwan Baan 

> via Ateliers Jean Nouvel