“It is my honour to accept this remarkable commission and to have the opportunity to create new spaces for Mathaf and transform its architecture. The Arab Museum of Modern Art is a rightly cherished and unrivalled institution that will evolve into an active Museum of making and learning, in addition to exhibiting and displaying. Alongside the future Qatar Pavilion in the Giardini of La Biennale di Venezia, this expansion will offer the world a remarkable space for the presentation of art and ideas, especially by artists from our part of the world.”
The first phase of the expansion, which has already been completed, reconfigures the Museum’s ground floor into an open-plan library that offers visitors the opportunity to browse Mathaf and Qatar Museums' publications, as well as an extensive selection of art books. It also functions as a community hub, hosting a wide range of events, workshops, and talks. The Majlis is complemented by an expanded book and gift shop, as well as a café offering casual dining.
Rendering of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art's Campus Expansion by Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture.
Later phases of the expansion will establish a unified Museum campus by transforming existing warehouses into specialised studio facilities developed for the functional programming in collaboration with established artists acting as advisors. Those will include:
A state-of-the-art ceramics studio, developed in consultation with the ceramicist Adrian Müller, equipped with specialised kilns and shared dry and wet studio spaces, enabling ceramicists to produce large-scale works;
A makerspace devoted to glassmaking developed with artist Matteo Gonet, woodworking, and materials experimentation; and
A sound studio equipped with state-of-the-art facilities developed with Tarek Atoui.
These spaces will form the core of a new residency programme. The ceramics studio will provide space for ceramicists to create large-scale artworks, host open studios, and conduct public workshops. Beginning 17 December, sound artist Tarek Atoui will present an exhibition foreshadowing future residencies for artists working with sound.
The entire campus will be unified by a new curtain-like architectural skin, bringing coherence to its volumes, while a new earthen ground plane will connect the site through a landscape designed to respond to the regional climate.
