The renowned architecture think tank AMO, in collaboration with OMA, has launched a groundbreaking exhibition titled "Countryside: A Place to Live, Not to Leave" in Doha, Qatar. Running until June 30, 2026, this ambitious project explores contemporary life beyond urban centers and examines how rural territories are adapting to global transformation. The exhibition is presented by Qatar Museums in partnership with the Qatar Fund for Development, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Hassad Food, and Kahramaa.
Conceived under the direction of internationally acclaimed architect Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, with Yotam Ben Hur serving as project architect, the exhibition continues research that was initially launched with "Countryside, The Future" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2020. This Doha iteration significantly expands the scope toward what the organizers call "the Arc" - a vast geographic corridor that extends from South Africa through East Africa, across Qatar and Central Asia to Eastern China.
The Arc represents a unique region defined by mountainous topographies that have historically limited large-scale urbanization while retaining enduring traditions even as it undergoes accelerated change. The exhibition investigates how technological innovation, new agricultural methods, and shifts in energy production are fundamentally redefining these landscapes. Through this lens, the project offers models for sustainable habitation that challenge traditional city-centered narratives about development and progress.
The exhibition is strategically organized across two complementary venues in Doha, creating a unique connection between research and public engagement. At the National Museum of Qatar, visitors encounter an installation that introduces the main themes and contextualizes the Arc as a dynamic region where demographic growth and modernization intersect with heritage and ecological concerns. This venue serves as the conceptual foundation for understanding the broader implications of rural transformation.
The Qatar Preparatory School functions as an experimental hub where traditional educational spaces are repurposed into active laboratories for research, production, and dialogue. Through workshops, lectures, and collaborative projects between students, educators, and invited international contributors, the school becomes both a site of learning and a living component of the exhibition itself. This innovative approach transforms the educational institution into a dynamic platform for exploring rural futures.
The surrounding grounds of the preparatory school serve as a practical test field for desert cultivation and sustainable food production techniques. Experimental plots and greenhouses explore cutting-edge methods of irrigation, hydroponics, and vertical farming, translating global agricultural research into local applications suitable for Qatar's challenging climate conditions. These ongoing processes are carefully documented and gradually assembled into a collective manifesto, forming a continuously evolving record of the project's discoveries and outcomes.
Developed with contributions from an extensive international network of researchers and prestigious academic institutions, the project represents a truly global collaborative effort. Partner institutions include the Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT, TU Delft, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, bringing together diverse perspectives on rural development and sustainable living practices from around the world.
"Countryside: A Place to Live, Not to Leave" positions rural areas not as peripheral landscapes left behind by progress, but as active fields of innovation and possibility. Through this reframing, the project challenges conventional assumptions about urbanization and development, suggesting that rural territories may hold key solutions for humanity's environmental and social challenges. The exhibition reflects on how human habitation might evolve in response to climate change, resource scarcity, and shifting global demographics, offering concrete examples and experimental models for sustainable rural living that could be applied worldwide.
