ELEMENTAL Selected to Design One of Qatar’s Largest Cultural Centers – Doha’s “Art Mill”

ELEMENTAL's "Art Mill" concept design. Image © ELEMENTAL / Malcolm Reading Consultants

ELEMENTAL, led by Pritzker Prize laureate Alejandro Aravena, has been selected as the design team for the Art Mill project in Doha, Qatar. Following a 26-strong longlist and a shortlist of eight internationally renowned practices, including Atelier Bow-Wow and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the Chilean practice have been lauded by the jury for developing “a serene artwork, [in which] the structure is the architecture.” Once complete, the project will join two other nearby cultural heavyweights: the Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M. Pei, and the National Museum of Qatar designed by Jean Nouvel.

ELEMENTAL's "Art Mill" concept design. Image © ELEMENTAL / Malcolm Reading Consultants

ELEMENTAL’s concept design for the historic waterfront site “took as its inspiration the rhythmic monumental grain silos that are the industrial legacy of the original Flour Mills on the site, which have produced bread for the state since the 1980s.” According to the competition organizers, the design concedes to the “strict geometry of retained silos” while contributing “a looser grouping of new silos that will act as cooling chimneys circulating air through the site that extends spectacularly on three sides into Doha Bay.”

The practice will now work with Qatar Museums to develop the initial concept design. A gallery of all eight shortlisted designs, including the runner-up Adam Khan Architects, will be published.