DOHA, Qatar – At the second edition of the annual New York Times ‘Art for Tomorrow’ conference, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker presented on the importance of art and its influence all throughout the development phases of the carrier’s hub, Hamad International Airport (HIA).
H.E. Mr. Al Baker shared the creative vision and importance of the iconic art pieces purposefully selected and positioned across the various nodes and concourses of the airport.
He remarked: “Introducing an airport as a destination location in and of itself required significant design detail and influence. The vision of the airport was to make the experience like no other; comfortable, desirable and memorable. An important element of this was introducing art and design.”
Open for nearly two years, HIA has 41 contact gates in operation, more than 40,000 square metres of retail and food and beverage spaces, an in-terminal 100-room hotel, 25-metre swimming pool, squash courts, fitness and spa facilities, many luxury shopping opportunities as well as Qatar Duty Free brands, and much more.
The presentation at the conference today, at the W Hotel in Doha, centred around the sculptures, paintings and design of the existing phases as well as the upcoming ones. The airport’s main architectural and design firm, Foster + Partners also took the audience through the main scope of the project and how harmony and symmetry was carefully layered uniformly throughout all the passenger offerings.
Art and architectural features have been a hallmark since the opening of the airport, providing passengers with an ambiance of aesthetically pleasing, inspiring, functional spaces for quietude, rest, shopping, dining, and business purposes.
H.E. Mr. Al Baker expanded: “The hub of Qatar Airways is designed with all of our passengers in mind, whether they are travelling short-haul, with a brief connection time, medium or long-haul. Not only is the airport filled with art elements, but we have paid careful attention to make it a highly convenient airport, technologically advanced and with an intuitive design.”
An iconic element of HIA is the highly acclaimed sculpture Lamp Bear by Urs Fischer that is positioned in the centre of the departures terminal, anchoring all of the various concourses and food and beverage outlets. The Lamp Bear sculpture has been in HIA since the opening in April 2014.
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About Qatar Airways:
Qatar Airways, the national carrier of the State of Qatar, is one of the fastest growing airlines operating one of the youngest fleets in the world. Now in its 19th year of operations, Qatar Airways has a modern fleet of 179 aircraft flying more than 150 key business and leisure destinations across six continents. Qatar Airways won Airline of the Year, Best Business Class Airline Seat and Best Airline in the Middle East at the 2015 Skytrax Awards. This is the third time the airline won the accolade of Airline of the Year.
Qatar Airways is a member of the oneworld global alliance. The award-winning alliance was named the World’s Best Airline Alliance 2015 by Skytrax for the third year running. Qatar Airways was the first Gulf carrier to join global airline alliance, oneworld, enabling its passengers to benefit from more than 1,000 airports in more than 150 countries, with 14,250 daily departures.
Qatar Airways launched Oryx One in 2015, an enhanced interface for its inflight entertainment system, increasing the number of movies and TV shows on board from 950 to up to 3,000. Passengers flying on Qatar Airways flights served by its B787, A350, A380, A319 and select A330 aircraft can also stay in touch with their friends and family around the world by using the five-star airline’s on-board Wi-Fi and GSM service.
Qatar Airways Cargo, the world’s fifth largest cargo carrier, serves more than 50 exclusive freighter destinations worldwide via its Doha hub and also delivers freight to more than 150 key business and leisure destinations globally on 179 aircraft. The Qatar Airways Cargo fleet now includes eight Airbus 330Fs, eight Boeing 777 freighters and one Boeing 747 freighter.
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