Desert bloom: Qatar's cultural transformation in pictures

(Image credit: Sophie Gladstone)

last updated 6 October 2022

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From a monumental Richard Serra installation in the desert to a 40,000-seat fully demountable stadium, Qatar sets the bar high for contemporary art, architecture and design. Ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup, we visit the Gulf state to witness the latest chapter of its cultural transformation.

Discover our visual diary here.

Fifa world cup stadium — Fenwick Iribarren Architects’ Stadium 974 was built for the 2022 Fifa World Cup using recycled steel and repurposed shipping containers. Fully demountable, it is designed to be transported to a new location or turned into a series of smaller venues

Corvette outside museum — AAP’s Outlaw V6 Corvette drag racer on display at the Jean Nouvel-designed National Museum of Qatar, part of a preview of the exhibits that will feature in the upcoming Qatar Auto Museum, designed by OMA

LED lights installation — *Your Brain to Me, My Brain to You*, 2022, by Pipilotti Rist. The Swiss artist’s new immersive video installation at the National Museum of Qatar symbolises humanity’s collective unconscious and features 12,000 LED lights strung on cables throughout the gallery

A classic caftan in silk organza by the Qatari fashion designer Wadha Al Hajri hangs in the Wadha boutique at the National Museum of Qatar

green building — Located in a historic midcentury building that once housed a girls’ school, Liwan Design Studios in Msheireb is a new creative hub dedicated to supporting the local design community

turquoise sculpture — *Turquoise City*, 2021, by Mark Handforth. Made of urban and industrial waste, this site-specific piece in Msheireb, downtown Doha, is inspired by the brightly coloured ceramics found in the city’s Museum of Islamic Art

Designed by OMA, the new Qatar National Library opened in 2018. Made of the same white marble as the floor, its bookshelves incorporate lighting, ventilation and the book return system. At the centre of the building is a 6m-deep excavated space, clad in beige travertine and housing the library’s heritage collection

rocks in desert — The Brouq nature reserve, or Ras Abrouq, is located an hour’s drive from Doha, on Qatar’s west coast. It is known for its mushroom-shaped rock formations, cliffs and beach

INFORMATION

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Qatar

Sophie is currently Photography Editor at Wallpaper*. Sophie joined the team following the completion of her photography degree in 2018, and works with Photography Director Holly Hay, where she shoots, commissions, produces, and writes on photography. Alongside this, she continues her art practice as a photographer, for which she was recently nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award. And in recognition of her work to date, Sophie was nominated by the British Journal of Photography for the Futures photography platform in 2021.

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Sophie Gladstone - Photography