PROBLEM_IMPORTED? EXPORTED? OR ORIGINAL?
What are the design considerations inherent in recent architectural schemes proposed by the “Starchitects” for several major museums in the Arabian Gulf ? and do these museums reflect a model of a Western Architect importing to the region his “ready-made” ideas from his “center to the periphery” ? or they present a model of an Architect who is understanding and re-imagining the lived experience in the Gulf by creating unique prototypes of Museums? …or even locally breeding them then exporting them from ”the periphery to the center” as a new innovative models?
INVESTIGATION_ GENEALOGIAL EXAMINATION
By studying the design repertoires of these commissioned “Starchitects”, this first phase of the studio attempts to identify similarities -or proof of originality- between their architectural designs of several museums in the Arabian Gulf and the rest of their works worldwide, so to find either a pre-existing model, a new and original model, or a follow-up experimentation or a development of that original model.
DESIGN STRATEGY_ SITE SELECTION, NARRATIVE AND STRATEGY
Having gone through the genealogical examination, a more familiar image of the Gulf emerges with several and rich heritage site (archeological ruin, existing heritage building, cultural landscape). A site analysis helps to intervene in each site’s vicinity with a cultural project combining two components: an exhibition medium component that tells about the site / the story teller (site museum) and a community oriented component that complement the site / the story making (institute, cultural hub, youth center, art school, environmental institute, archeological lab,…) depending on its geographical and social context.