A panel discussion on ‘Islamic Art and Architecture between Tradition and Modernity’ was held at the Museum of Islamic Art on Sunday in honour of I M Pei, the Chinese-American who was the architect for the museum.

On the panel were HE Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Qatar Museums Authority; Luis Monreal, a conservation specialist, art historian and archaeologist who is the general manager of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture based in Geneva; and Tarek Swelim, an acclaimed art historian and academic guide from Cairo who is an expert on the mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo which provided the inspiration for Pei’s design for the museum.

The panel also included the French architect and interior designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte who was responsible for the gallery design of the museum; Hiroshi Okamoto, the Japanese project architect working with Pei who oversaw the construction of the museum; and Philip Jodidio from France who is one of the world’s best-known authorities on architecture and the author of more than 60 books and also the museum catalogue.

The discussion was attended by HH Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad together with a large number of distinguished guests.

In his opening remarks, Monreal praised the achievement of Sheikha al-Mayassa as a young woman who had generated the team responsible for the Museum of Islamic Art and led the project to its conclusion.

He also referred to al-Mayassa’s huge involvement in the charitable project Reach Out to Asia. The destiny of the Arab world, he said, is in the hands of her generation.

In her reply, al-Mayassa said that Monreal had been a constant guide to the whole museum project and it was through his advice to her father, HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, that Pei, one of the most accomplished architects of his generation, had finally been selected.

Later on in the discussion, she spoke about the endowment of a new Chair of Islamic Architecture at the University of Oxford by a partnership between the museum and Qatar Foundation. The Chair would bear the name of I M Pei and would honour him for generations to come.

Pei arrived together with his wife and was given a standing welcome by everyone present. In his address to the audience, Pei said that when he had first met the Emir he had confessed that he was not knowledgeable about Islamic architecture and had asked for time to study it.

He stressed that behind every architect is the client, and that he had been particularly blessed by the sympathetic support he had received from HH the Emir. On his second visit to Doha he had rejected the original site chosen for the museum and had suggested an alternative site, then occupied by containers, which was accepted.

“I am pleased to see the attendance today of Qatar university architectural staff and female students,” he added, describing them as the “critical mass” for the future.

Jodidio mentioned that he had first met Pei in the ‘80s and recalled the storm of protest raised at the time against Pei’s now famous glass pyramid design for the extension of the Louvre museum in Paris.

He said that Pei had been a student at Harvard, under the great architect Walter Gropius, widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern architecture, and had studied how traditional and modern architectural forms can co-exist.

“In the Museum of Islamic Art”, he said, “Pei has created links with the past, present and future, bringing modernity to life.”

Prof Swelim said that, like Pei, he had “fallen in love with the Mosque of Ibn Tulun”. He discussed the techniques employed in making the transition between the geometric shapes in the museum building, using several tiers of octagons, and compared this to the similar approach in the design of Ibn Tulun. Transitional techniques were also employed in the museum’s interior, such as the ‘pendentives’ – concave triangles formed by the intersection of a dome with its rectangular base – which are a feature of Mamluk architecture.

Okamoto represented Pei in Doha to ensure, as he said, “that the exacting standards of Pei were achieved”. Study models were made to develop the transition from square to octagon. Experiments were conducted to develop a concrete which would withstand the harsh climate and of a suitable colour.

This led to some surprises, as on one occasion when the formwork was removed from a test pour the concrete was revealed to be green! Later this problem was successfully resolved.

“Pei was totally involved in the design development process at every stage,” said Okamoto, recalling that 114 different forms had to be made to create the ceiling panels.

Wilmotte told the audience that he had first worked with Pei on the Louvre project where he designed the showcases, and had now been working with him for two decades. When Pei asked him if he would like to work in Doha the collection of Islamic art had numbered only around 100 pieces, but all through the project more and more marvellous pieces were acquired and had to be accommodated. “Pei was the light, I was the shadow,” he joked.

Towards the close of the panel discussion, HH Sheikha Mozah thanked Pei and the Board of Trustees for their tremendous contributions.

She said that it was important that architecture adapted to the culture and needs of those who made use of it, and that sometimes the human scale of architecture had been lost through the prejudices of architects.

Sheikha Mozah described the museum architecture as “a beacon of help” for the region and current and future designers, and especially thanked Pei for his respect for the culture and environment, and his help in finding a solution to the “puzzle” of combining traditional Islamic forms with the requirements of a modern building.