With the highest GDP per capita in the region and billions of foreign exchange reserves, Qatar has long topped the ranks of the Middle East’s wealthiest countries. As part of a major long-term push to diversify its oil and gas-based economy, M7 opened last November with great fanfare in the downtown district of Msheireb in the capital Doha. Housed in a purpose-built five-storey structure, it’s established as the country’s new hub for fashion and design innovation that aims to empower emerging local designers to explore, collaborate, and grow into successful entrepreneurs by providing the necessary tools and expertise to enable them to take their ideas from concept to market. Additionally, the prestigious venue features an incubator, a co-working and learning space, in addition to two exhibition galleries, a co-working space, a café, and last but not least, concept store Studio 7.
Since it’s not only a retail space, but also a venue for showcases, pop-up stores, workshops and private events, Seoul-based architecture and design practice MOTOElastico created a modular system that effortlessly allows endless configurations. The aforementioned system comprises a ceiling-suspended metal grid which is used to hang all the display furniture, including table displays of different sizes, clothes hangers, shelves and mirrors, partitions, the lighting system, and last but not least, a yellow curtain to create different spaces. Crafted from an industrial fabric used for car parking shades, it helps to create Studio 7‘s various sections with different levels of privacy, ranging from open inlets used to highlight special collections, to more private spaces such as the changing room and the office.
Studio 7
M7, Sharia Abdullah Bin Thani (Msheireb)
Doha
Mon-Thu 11am-7pm
Sun 11am-7pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
