CHEDI KATARA HOTEL

In Doha’s Katara Cultural Village, The Chedi Katara Hotel & Resort was designed by WATG (with Wimberly Interiors on the interiors), commissioned by GHM and inspired by a research journey through Rajasthan bringing Mughal architecture, softened with notes of Ottoman heritage, to Qatar. Its skyline is defined by chhatris, the domed pavilions characteristic of Indo-Islamic architecture, set in fretwork and moulded detail against Doha’s modern backdrop.

We produced and installed every dome on the property in GRP, engineered from the outset with full insulation and waterproofing built into the structure and precise enough in tolerance to receive the hand-laid mosaic tile finish specified for the exterior.

The most demanding element was the muqarna the intricate, stalactite-like vaulting that is one of the most complex forms in Islamic architecture. Carved by hand, a muqarna of this detail would take months of manual craftsmanship; we produced it instead on a 7-axis robotic machine in less than a month, preserving every fold of the traditional geometry without the months that hand-carving would have demanded.