Msheireb Museums

John McAslan + Partners worked with Buro Happold and exhibition designers Ralph Appelbaum to transform four historic courtyard houses in Doha dating back to the early 20th century into the Msheireb Museums. With a mixture of restoration, remodelling, extension, and new state-of-the-art environmental systems and engrossing museological narratives, the buildings remain essentially traditional in form and materials but are of international museum standard. Each Museum explains the history of a key aspect of Qatar’s early and contemporary development: the slave trade; the discovery of oil; traditional domestic life; and the transformation of Doha. Together, the Museums provide important insights into the history and bold aspirations of this peninsular nation.