Albidda Tower
Albidda Tower is a 215 tall, 43 storey modern building in Doha. This building is perhaps the most modernist work of architecture in the conservative Arab country. It combines various aspects of contemporary architectural design including the twisted face, which makes it unique among all modern buildings in the Gulf. Another modernist aspect of this building is the triangular shaped floor plan, which has been conceptualized in such a way that the floor area at the top is larger than the base, making it elegant. However, intricate design elements have been incorporated to ensure stability of the entire building despite the top floors being larger than the base. In addition, the building has a multifaceted glasswork that reflects sunlight and artificial light in different directions, thereby giving the façade a jewel-like luster. Each floor of the building is different from the other, both in terms of geometric location and plate size. The building lacks internal columns but has several external columns, which twist with the building.
Residential Building in Lusail
This is a mixed-use, high-rise residential building boasting modernist features. The building uses style modernist sculptural forms such as shifted volumes, smooth surfaces and projecting cantilevers to create a touch of Western allure in the Arab country. The building also features screens covering skylights to provide shade and protect interior rooms from excessive sunlight while at the same time reducing the need for artificial lighting systems. The building has a slated design, which is quite common among modernist buildings. This design creates the shadows that change direction as the sun passes. The imposing horizontal windows provide the interior with enough natural light and are a key modernist feature. In addition, the residential tower has retractable window panels which provide capacity for protecting the the interiors from day light while maintaining a very beautiful look.
Al-Hitmi Office Building
This is an eight-storey modernist building consisting of two wings separated by an atrium at the centre. This innovative modernist design was inspired by the look of stone formations cutting through bodies of water. This design aspect evokes memories of a pristine, natural environment untouched by human interventions. The building has a seven storey linearly arranged office building and a 15-storey residential tower. A key feature of the Al-Hitmi Office Building is the reflective flow, which snakes through the two towers. The reflective flow is an ever-changing chandelier at night and a unique sculpture during the daytime. It consists of several handmade optical crystals and thousands of LED lights, making it the largest interactive LED-featuring tower in the world. The dramatic sky-lit atrium is another key modernist feature of the Al-Hitmi Office Building. The atrium dissects the building and folds up through the residential part of the tower in a manner suggestive of a ravine between massive rocks. All these features make the building not only unique but also exquisitely Western in the Islamic country (Fez-Barringten, 84-87).
Msheireb Enrichment Centre
The Msheireb Enrichment Centre is a landmark building in Qatar that serves as an educational portal for showcasing Qatar’s rich past and ambitious plans for the future. A true masterpiece in modernist architecture, the Msheireb Enrichment Centre features panoramic terraces conceived following the principles of contemporary architectural design. The resulting effect is harmonization of old and new architectural design aspects. Among other features, the building combines grand proportions and simple surfaces of natural sculptural and beauty materials offset against different areas of fine detail. This gives the building a feel of contemporary patterns combined with ancient Islamic and Arabic motifs. Marbles, sculpture and other works of mosaic are intricately arranged throughout the building to give it a pure sense of art. By incorporating many features that are found in traditional Qatari architecture into Western style features, the Msheireb Enrichment Centre asserts a sense of paradigm shift in modernist architectural principles.
Anti-doping Lab Qatar
The Anti-Doping Lab is the latest addition to Qatar’s state of the art sports facilities and the only one of its kind in the region. It is a purpose built 3-storey building equipped with world-class facilities to provide anti-doping testing for athletes. The building boasts an updated version of of the minimalistic design that was common in the mid 20th century combined with latest trends in Western style architecture. The building highlights modern architectural marvels through the elegantly designed multi-windowed three stories crowed with antique mosaic. The art installations in the building designed for scientific work and whose style of architecture is based on resistance to decoration looks bizarre. Inside the building are large rooms for housing testing equipments and for storage of chemicals. The interior is well ventilated to allow for maximum possible natural light while reducing the impact of external temperature changes. The building is located in a serene area away from the distractions of the every bustles and hustles of life in Doha. This is perhaps due to the sensitive nature of the work housed in the building (Fez-Barringten, 84-87).
Work Cited
Fez-Barringten, Barie. Architecture: The Making of Metaphors. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
