Location: Doha, Qatar.

Architect: HDR Inc.

Qatar University has commissioned the design of two new colleges, the College of Medicine and the College of Health Sciences, to be integrated into the QU Health Campus site. HDR was appointed to lead the architecture, educational specialist planning, laboratory planning and interior design. Their approach was to apply a set of principles and design elements to enrich the users’ experience, creating a familiar environment of the region that fosters collaboration and harmonizes the building with the rest of the Campus. These principles include repetition and harmony, geometry, firmness, and the indissoluble bond between the material and immaterial characteristics of architecture. HDR has designed a building to respond to the harsh Qatari environment, with long 1-meter-deep openings maximising diffused daylight into the interior circulation and informal learning areas.

The building materiality references the traditional language found in the immediate context of the Qatar University campus, with stone cladding used for solid surfaces and GRC used for the screen wrapping the central block. Bronze colour metal is used to emphasize the main entry portal and detailing providing additional richness to the material palette. Interior planning principles represent a unique aspect of Qatar’s cultural heritage, following the space hierarchy of the traditional Qatari house. Qatari House of Knowledge and Wisdom uses a colour palette narrative “Blue and Golden Hour” with vibrant interior colours inspired by souq displays, alignment of the interior architecture and circulation corridors, QU Branding, student-centred experience, academic & research social hubs, cross-collaboration, science on display, and a vibrant community to support growth, research, innovation and excellence in Research and Learning.