Aim to make Doha a leading cultural destination in Gulf

By Joey Aguilar/Staff ReporterThe Msheireb Museums will strengthen Doha’s position as a leading cultural destination in the Gulf region and “one that is highly significant on the international stage,” engineer Abdulla Hassan al-Mehshadi, CEO at Msheireb Properties, has said.Speaking at the formal opening of the four museums, he said the objective is to preserve Qatar’s rich past while shaping its identity as a modern and progressive nation.“We are committed to re-defining how we can celebrate and express our cultural values and our aesthetic heritage, yet also live as an advanced, progressive nation, offering the very best to our residents, tenants and visitors,” al-Mehshadi noted.Msheireb Properties is a real estate company and a subsidiary of Qatar Foundation. It was established as a commercial venture to support the Foundation’s aims as well as the realisation of Qatar’s 2030 Vision. Located in the heart of Doha, the four Msheireb Museums form an important part of Qatar’s national history and integral aspect of the inner city’s regeneration of the old commercial centre with its traditional community-based lifestyle. The Bin Jelmood House reveals a flourishing trade in enslaved people throughout the Indian Ocean World, a vast region of which the countries of the Arabian Gulf are a part of. The story in Qatar begins in enslavement but ends in shared freedom and shared prosperity.The house also explores the role Islam played in providing guidance for the humane treatment of enslaved people, their integration into society and the eventual abolition of slavery.Formerly used as the headquarters for Qatar’s first oil company, the Company House tells the story of the pioneering Qatari petroleum industry workers and their families who transformed Qatar into a modern society. The restored Radwani House presents traditional Qatari family life and gathers, preserves and shares memories of Qatar. Located between Al-Jasrah and Msheireb, it was first built in the 1920s.The museum also provides visitors an insight into how family life evolved in Qatar over the years. It showcases not only the manner in which it changed over time, but also how domestic family life was transformed in Doha.Sheikh Mohamed bin Jassim al-Thani, son of the founder of modern Qatar, built the Mohamed Bin Jassim House which hosts the Echo Memory Art Project using objects uncovered during excavation work on the site. This heritage house addresses the past, the present and the sustainable aspect on which Msheireb Downtown Doha is based, according to al-Mehshadi.The house also demonstrates Msheireb’s traditional values as the foundations for the future development of Doha and introduces the transformation of Msheireb over time through recalling memories of its past, showcasing its present and engaging visitors in the plans for the future.As Msheireb Properties aims to make the four museums centres of research, al-Mehshadi added they also want the heritage houses to become learning tools for future generations.