Mall is latest stage of Doha’s vast new suburb

HOK London has won planning for its Marina Mall, Doha, a shopping and leisure centre in Lusail, a newly built neighbourhood on the east coast of Qatar.

The 60,000sq m mall is on three levels and contains retail, cinemas, a spa and restaurants overlooking the marina. A 10,000sq m hypermarket fills the basement.

Smaller “pods” embedded in the landscape around the mall are designed to animate the threshold between the mall and the marina. These will house more shops, exhibition spaces and entertainment areas including a skate park and children’s play area.

A body of water runs throughout the centre of the scheme, linking mall to marina, while internal waterfalls provide a visual connection between the different levels.

Barry Hughes, vice president, of HOK London, said: “Lusail, Qatar’s future city, will offer the very latest in modern urban living and it was important that the design of Marina Mall complement that inspirational vision.

“By mixing natural forms with traditional architecture typologies we’re trying to make a technological as well as imaginative step forward in place creation.” 

Lusail is a 37sq km suburb of Doha comprising 19 mixed-use districts about 15km north of the city centre.