Making Doha: History of Modern Qatar 1950-2030
2019 AMOCurated by Rem Koolhaas, Samir Bantal, and Fatma Al Sehlawi
Making Doha 1950-2030 brings together seventy years of photographs, models, plans, texts, films, oral histories, and archival materials to chart Doha’s transition from organic growth to more modern and deliberate planning practices.
This exhibition examines how the city of Doha was assembled and how its construction affected the global discipline of architecture across four major chapters: Seeds of a Nation (1950–1971), Modern State (1971–1995), And the World (1995–2010), and Destination Qatar (2010–2030). The floorplan of the exhibition is designed as a timeline, organizing the story into four sections, with key moments punctuating the visitors’ passage along the narrative. A 115-meter-long curtain printed with historical collages lines the edge of the space.
This exhibition examines how the city of Doha was assembled and how its construction affected the global discipline of architecture across four major chapters: Seeds of a Nation (1950–1971), Modern State (1971–1995), And the World (1995–2010), and Destination Qatar (2010–2030). The floorplan of the exhibition is designed as a timeline, organizing the story into four sections, with key moments punctuating the visitors’ passage along the narrative. A 115-meter-long curtain printed with historical collages lines the edge of the space.
“Typically a learning curve eventually flattens out. By relentlessly placing tremendous challenges before itself—a major airport, the World Cup, the Olympics, new cultural institutions like Qatar Museums and Education City—Qatar put itself in a situation where the curve constantly became steeper.”
Rem Koolhaas
