OMAN CULTURAL CENTER

Located near Muscat main entrance, the Cultural Centre emerges from a unique landscape, between the sea and the mountains, as an oasis where palm trees and mineral colonnades offer cool and shaded public spaces.

This new cultural district brings together three major buildings around a wide, central square: the Oman National Theatre, including a 1,000-seat auditorium and a 250-seat flexible auditorium; the 20,000 sqm five-story National Library; and the National Archives partially open to the public, including nearly twenty kilometers of archival shelf-displays. The complex also features an exhibition centre, a cultural centre and a cinema.

With reference to Omani architecture, a musharabieh canopy covers all the buildings. While filtering sunbeams, this canopy creates plays of light and shadow that echo the reflections an...