The Ned Doha

The project transforms a former ministry building, one of the oldest in the city, into a boutique hotel. Designed in the 1970s by a Lebanese architect and now listed, the building stands on the waterfront promenade and is valued as an elegant example of Brutalism in the region. Reusing it reduces the impact of construction and keeps a rare piece of early urban development.

The British design team refurbished the building, adapted it as a hotel and added a new top floor. A 260-metre-long plinth forms a new podium, a green oasis of planting, art and basins. Pavilions along the water hold services and event spaces under a continuous brise-soleil of slender concrete ribs that gives shade and privacy outdoors.

The covered inner courtyard and the atrium form the heart of the hotel, with a gallery bar looking down to the restaurants below. Ninety rooms and suites fill three upper floors, and the new roof holds a spa, a gym and a lounge with views over the sea. The ribs of the roof echo the pilaster strips of the old façade, and the new additions use white and green marble and travertine that recalls the existing stone.