Architect Alejandro Aravena’s Design Chosen for New Museum in Qatar
The academic from the UC Chile Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies, leader of the Chilean studio Elemental, and winner of the 2016 Pritzker prize – considered the “Oscars of Architecture” – is in charge of the designing Qatar’s new museum of modern and contemporary art, after his project was selected from among 400 proposals.
photo_camera Alejandro Aravena during his keynote speech at UC Chile in 2023. (Photo credit: César Dellepiane)
This future cultural space will be named the Art Mill Museum, and will be located in the Doha area, in a maritime zone where the country’s main flour and bread production company operates today.
Part of the proposal made by Elemental studio will purposefully include those concrete silos that belong to the flour company, which, in Aravena’s design, will play a leading role in connecting this new proposal to the history of the place.
New horizons
According to Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, the professor and alumnus of the UC Chile Faculty of Architecture says that there is still no set date for the start of construction, as the area must first be vacated. “When we get the go-ahead, we will begin the process,” Aravena stated.
The Art Mill Museum will feature works in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, film, film props, fashion, and crafts, among others.
According to Qatar Museums, once the project is completed, this venue will exhibit a collection started 40 years ago with works spanning a period from 1850 to the present.
Aravena, renowned for his social and sustainable approach to architecture, visited Doha in October as part of the Years of Culture program, where Chile was the guest country.
This future museum of modern and contemporary art at Qatar will enhance a cultural triangle alongside the Museum of Islamic Art and the National Museum of Qatar, consolidating Doha as an epicenter of art on this side of the world.
