Architect Jean Nouvel chose the desert rose as the layout for the Qatar National Museum building because it symbolizes the “silent and eternal dimension, but also the spirit of modernity and daring that have come along and shaken up what seemed unshakeable”. Here we can ask ourselves why he opted to use a naturally occurring sediment in the desert instead of a camel or an oryx that is indigenous to Qatar, as a symbol of the Qatari culture. The silence and eternal factor that pertains to the desert rose acts as a stark contrast to the reality of Qatari life, a rambunctious and busy city life that is colored with skyscrapers. In addition, the structural make-up of the desert rose, rising from the ground, reasserts a stable, timeless, and sentimental factor that an indigenous animal cannot evoke.
I want to focus on the second part of his claim about the spirit of modernity that shook the traditional Qatari paradigm. We know that Nouvel intended to design the museum to signify the contrast between heritage and modernity that comes with the Qatari culture. Specifically, he asserts that “in the aftermath of the Second World War, was the amazing discovery of oil, followed twenty years later by the discovery of another treasure: gas. The desert peninsula of Qatar and its people suddenly saw enormous, dazzling change and the country turned into a real crossroads, alluring and open, and attracting visitors from far and wide.”, we can see that Nouvel correlates the modernity shook the seemingly silent and eternal desert with the discovery of oil and gas. Here we need to look at the important, symbolic role of oil and gas in Qatari culture. It signifies Qatar’s economic power because it gave Qatar the tools for prosperity. Much like “After Oil”, research published about the transitions of fossil fuels, postulates that the discovery of oil has allowed for the modernization of society and its dimension is dependent on the continuous use of oil.
The desert rose structure reminds us of our continuous dependency on oil, and in a way, could be looked at as an appreciative monument for it. Without it, Qatar would not enjoy the economic prosperity that Nouvel mentioned. But this petro-fuelled progress comes at a cost: the dissolution of not only ecological and biological species but also our own culture and heritage, an eco-bio-cultural extinction event. So, how could a structure that appreciates a petro-fuelled society act as a heritage symbol? The modern and cultural symbolism of the museum does not serve as a contrast, but in reality, a contradiction. The presence of oil hinders the timelessness aspect of the structure as oil is becoming scarcer by the day and overtakes the historical culture and dissolves it into a culture that is dependant on energy. Another contradiction with the structure of the museum arises: its claim to be “extremely energy efficient”, having received a four-star sustainability rating from the Global Sustainability Assessment System. The disks act as a barrier from the sun, reducing the need to use any extra cooling mechanisms. But being sustainable does not stop the reinforcement of the usage of energy. So what happens when oil stops becoming sustainable? does the desert rose lose its symbolic meaning in Qatar’s contemporary context?
