Marine treasures to be shown at the QUAM, the world’s largest underwater museum

22 february 2016,

The Qatar Underwater Archaeological Museum, conceived by Italian designers, is the world’s largest underwater museum and will be built in Doha.

Travel

Marine treasures to be shown at the QUAM

Doha Skyline

Investigating the depths of the ocean allows you to delve into less vast, fascinating and complex worlds than those visible on the surface: old military ships, sailing ships, submarines but also fishing, diving, marine landscapes and biodiversity with their history, literature and scientific research. It will be possible to see all this at the QUAM (Qatar Underwater Archaeological Museum), the “Museum of the Sea” – or more precisely the museum of underwater archaeology – that once completed will be the largest in the world.

Quam presentation, Rome

The project, presented in Rome a few days ago, was developed by Francesco Scavelli, director at Bluimage Productions, with the collaboration of the Schiattarella Associati study and additional contribution of Finmeccanica and Fincantieri and will include Italian design, engineering and architectural elements.

The museum, that will rise north of Doha, in the surroundings of the Lusail City race track, will spread to an area of 3.5 million square metres: so, it is an ambitious project – according to architect Amedeo Schiattarella – but the team will try to reduce its environmental impact.

aerial view quam — Aerial view of how the QUAM will look like

With a total investment of 7 billion dollars, estimated time for the planning of one year and a half and estimated construction time of four years, the project is aimed to be completed by 2022, the year of the FIFA World Cup that will take place in Qatar, or at least by 2023, when the country will host the world swimming Championships.

Further details will be provided at the official presentation that will take place on April 15 in Doha, but in the meantime we know that the exhibition space will be of 500,000 square metres that will include sections devoted to oceanography, marine biology, fishing as well as history, cinema, art, literature and sports concerning the sea. In an adjacent reservoir, whose perimeter is about one km, various types of ships, including ancient or military ones, will be built and submerged underwater up to 30 metres and in their surroundings a centre for water sports as well as a residential and hotel complex with golf course and Lighthouse Tower will be constructed.

But not only does the ambitious project aim to boost tourism in view of the upcoming international events, it also aims to create a team of eminent scientists through academic courses of underwater archaeology and marine biology supported by world’s largest marine library.