IM Pei found the soul of Islamic architecture – and reshaped Doha in the process

Exhibitions in Qatar bring sketches, models and archival material to light to offer detailed look at legacy of man who designed Museum of Islamic Art

Pritzker-winning Chinese-American architect IM Pei designed the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. Photo: John Loengard/ The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock

IM Pei is one of the most renowned names in architecture – the mind behind Paris’s Louvre Pyramid, Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art and Washington’s National Gallery of Art. Now, for the first time, two exhibitions by Qatar Museums are offering a comprehensive retrospective and deep dive into Pei’s life and enduring work.

Born Ieoh Ming Pei in Guangzhou, the Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese-American architect (1917–2019) became known for his fusion of modernist principles with traditional elements, using intricate geometries and a responsive, site-specific approach informed by the culture he was designing for.

Pei has architectural masterpieces across the globe. His final and perhaps most distinctive building is the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) – a minimalist, tiered structure drawing influence from heritage architectural styles across the Middle East and North Africa. Today it is a much-loved landmark of Doha, visited by tourists and locals alike.

IM Pei's original designs for Museum of Islamic Art are on display in Qatar. Photo: Qatar Museums

IM Pei and the Making of the Museum of Islamic Art: From Square to Octagon and Octagon to Circle, jointly organised by MIA, the future Art Mill Museum (AMM) and Alriwaq, delves into the creation of the famed structure, taking visitors through Pei’s creative process and his mission to capture the fundamental essence of Islamic architecture.

Curated by AMM's Aurelien Lemonier and Zahra Khan in collaboration with MIA director of curatorial affairs Mounia Chekhab Abudaya, the exhibition gathers original sketches, models, early photographs and archival documents – many displayed publicly for the first time.

The show unfolds across seven sections, beginning with the 1997 International Architecture Competition – ultimately set aside when Pei agreed to take on the project – to the museum’s 2008 opening and its lasting legacy as a cultural beacon in Doha and beyond. The models and some sketches have been donated permanently to the MIA by Pei’s family.

“Pei was already retired when [former Emir of Qatar] Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani approached him to do this project. He started travelling around the Islamic world to get some inspiration, as it was a part of the world he had never explored before,” Chekhab Abudaya tells The National. “He went to Cordoba in Spain, to Sousse in Tunisia, to Fatehpur Sikri in India and to the Great Mosque of Damascus in Syria.

Museum of Islamic Art in Doha is considered one of Pei's definitive designs. Photo: Qatar Museums

“In Cairo, he was inspired by the ablution basin in Ibn Tulun, a ninth-century mosque with a 13th-century Mamluk ablution facility,” she adds. “This basin has a square base with a dome on top of it – a feature we call a pendentive in architecture – which creates this transition from square to octagon, from octagon to circle.”

The subtle striping on the exterior echoes the black-and-white Mamluk-era bands found on the Great Mosque of Damascus, while its block-like, almost cubist forms draw on Tunisia’s ribat fortresses from the eighth and ninth centuries. The circular atrium chandelier and arcade-lined courtyard take cues from countless historic Islamic buildings.

Pei visited Museum of Islamic At in Doha after its opening in 2008. Photo: Qatar Museums

Anticipating the city’s rapid growth, Pei chose to build the museum on a reclaimed peninsula so that it would never be hemmed in by other buildings or lose access to natural light – an element essential to the interplay of light and shadow across the geometric interiors.

“This really became the landmark of Doha’s landscape. The play between light and shadows can look completely different depending on the time of day, the angle and even the time of year,” Chekhab Abudaya adds. “It always looks different, and that's quite special.”

Acting as a complementary exhibition, IM Pei: Life Is Architecture, is showing at the nearby Alriwaq in Doha, presented in collaboration with M+ Hong Kong. Bringing together more than 400 works, it includes original drawings, architectural models, photographs, films and archival documentation chronicling Pei’s life and career.

Pei's Museum of Islamic Art design was the result of meticulous study of the region's architecture. Photo: Qatar Museums

The exhibition defines Pei's unique practice and traces his architectural projects in dialogue with social, cultural and biographical trajectories, backed by seven years of research by curators Shirley Surya, M+ curator of design and architecture, and Aric Chen, director of Zaha Hadid Foundation.

“A lot of people might have an image of Pei’s work, but the show tries to tell the stories behind what people think they know,” Chen tells The National. “We include a lot of the ‘greatest hits’, like Washington’s National Gallery of Art’s East Wing, and how they helped shape not just the architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries, but also how they shaped our cities, our ways of building and the spaces that we gather in.

“If you look at his buildings, you see that they range from the grand and monumental to quite intimate spaces that are integrated into natural landscapes,” he adds. “But I think the common thread is a real sensitivity towards context and towards the people who will use that space.”

Pei at John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Massachusetts in 1979. Getty Images

Spread across six thematic sections, the show offers a more personal look at Pei’s creative process and the often boundary-pushing designs he produced. A particular highlight is the section on the Louvre Pyramid that – despite now being part of the most visited museum on the planet and a national symbol – began as a proposal widely criticised by the French public.

Newspaper clippings and legal documents show how Pei faced an uphill battle to prove that his design would not deface the historic Louvre courtyard, and that he was tasked with winning over the public. Ultimately, the Louvre’s expansion has become synonymous with Paris and is credited with allowing the museum to accommodate and display its collections properly.

The two exhibitions are a must-see for any architecture and design enthusiast, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the renowned buildings Pei created. Staging the retrospectives in Doha feels like a fitting full-circle moment – commemorating Pei's final project by looking back at the architect’s legacy at large.

Both exhibitions run until February 14, 2026