This volume is published on the occasion of the opening of the National Museum of Qatar in the state's capital, Doha. Inspired by the desert rose with its interlocking disks, architect Jean Nouvel's innovative design, responds to the country's desert location by the sea. The museum, built around Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al-Thani's original nineteenth-century palace, honors Qatar's heritage while looking to its future as a thriving cultural hub.