A Journey into the World of the Ottomans

Exhibition architecture for an exhibition on orientalist art in Qatar.

Designing a space for an exhibition of art is not ordinarily the business of an architect. But it is actually one of architecture‘s quintessential tasks: how can one create a space that gives viewers the best possible means of looking at a work of art? Or in more radical terms: how does one create architecture that gives people the best possible means of perceiving the world? What does architecture of that kind feature? In approaching the concrete task of an exhibition on Orientalism, we kept asking ourselves new questions: should we divide the area into several rooms? Would a linear alignment of the rooms be preferable, or a labyrinthine arrangement? Would it make more sense to concentrate everything in one large space? How big is this space? How high is it, and what is the proportion of length to width? What about the light? Should there be daylight or artificial light or even a mixture of both? What should the floors and walls feel like? What kind of flooring is comfortable and yet not as comfortable as our living room at home? Should visitors have the opportunity to sit down? And if, so where? And how far away from the works of art? How are the works hung? By date, by artist, by style, by some other distinction? By subject matter or theme perhaps? As with any task in contemporary architecture, there are no hard and fast rules. Answers to all of these questions vary depending on the location and the type of art. If an exhibition is successful, visitors usually remember only how exciting and interesting the viewing experience was, but rarely the exhibition architecture itself. That is also what should happen in this case, because exhibition architecture should not make a mark as a spectacle with entertainment value in its own right; it should be perfectly self-evident and even natural, enabling visitors to meet up with works of art as intimately and inspiringly as possible.

Herzog & de Meuron, 2010