The Massive National Museum of Qatar Is Inspired by the Desert Rose

Jean Nouvel -- the French architect behind notable projects worldwide, such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi -- has taken his expertise back to the Middle East, recently completing the enormous National Museum of Qatar in Doha. The sprawling 560,000-square-foot venue opened to the public earlier this month, revealing an extraordinary sand-toned structure that was influenced in design by the desert rose. A desert rose is a natural flower-like formation native to the gulf region, which inspired the use of ...