Doha Tower (Burj Doha)

Doha Tower stands in West Bay, the business district on the northern side of Doha Bay, close to the Corniche. It was designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel and completed in 2012. It has 46 floors above ground and rises to 238 metres. The project began in 2004 as the Doha High Rise Office Building and was later called Burj Doha and then officially Doha Tower.

In 2012 the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat gave it its award for the best tall building worldwide. Its rounded shape quickly made it one of the most recognisable outlines on the Doha skyline.

The tower is a cylinder with a domed top. Its structure has no central core. Instead, a diagrid of concrete columns crossing in X shapes runs around the outside, which leaves the office floors open. The glass skin is wrapped in several layers of aluminium screens patterned like mashrabiya, the carved lattice screens of traditional Arab architecture. The screens are denser on the sunny sides to cut heat and glare, and at night the tower is lit from within, so the pattern glows.

The building is a private office tower, and the interior is not open to sightseers. Its main appeal for visitors is the view from outside.

The best views are from the Corniche promenade, from a dhow on the bay, or from the Museum of Islamic Art park across the water, especially at dusk when the lights come on.

The tower cost about 455 million Qatari riyals, roughly US$125 million. Construction started in 2005 with China State Construction Engineering Corporation as main contractor. It is owned by Sheikh Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani and operated by the Hamad Bin Saoud Group. The building has about 110,000 square metres of floor space, three basement levels and 23 lifts, and it is the seventh tallest building in Doha.

Nouvel based the cylinder on his earlier Torre Glòries office tower in Barcelona. The base is 45 metres across, and because the diagrid carries the load, the service core sits slightly off-centre, which makes the floors easier to divide for tenants.

For photographs, the walk along the Corniche from the Museum of Islamic Art towards West Bay gives the classic view of the tower above the bay. Evening dhow cruises leave from the Corniche and pass in front of the West Bay towers as the lights come on. The Corniche promenade is free and open at all hours. In the hot months, from June to September, plan your walk for after sunset.