Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Journal of Architecture
Publication Date
5-26-2022
Abstract
Museums that have recently been completed in the Gulf present a recurrent strategy. The emphasis is often on the container rather than the content. In this framework, architecture is the language that, through visual metaphors alluding to local traditions, generates a contextual linkage and a sense of place. Therefore, none of these latest museums is designed as a building. Instead, it is a desert rose, a falcon's feather, a sail, or any other reference to Gulf iconography. The present text analyses the meaning of symbolic language in architecture by comparing a series of case studies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), culminating with Jean Nouvel's antipodal proposals for the National Museum in Qatar and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The paper argues that the validation of buildings through visual allusions to locality is a recurrent feature of recent Gulf museums, as a response to a fluid context in constant adjustment on the tradition-modernity axis.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Disciplines
Architecture
Keywords
LOUVRE-ABU-DHABI, QATAR
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Fabbri, Roberto, "The Contextual Linkage: Visual Metaphors And Analogies In Recent Gulf Museums' Architecture" (2022). All Works. 5195.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/5195
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Hybrid: This publication is openly available in a subscription-based journal/series