Chile-based practice Elemental has been selected to design a massive art museum on a historic waterfront site at Doha Bay after it won the Art Mill International Design Competition conducted by Qatar Museums to find an outstanding team to design this cultural marvel.

Art Mill will come up over a one-million-sq-ft area in the centre of capital Doha.

Elemental was selected by an international jury, from a 26-strong longlist, based on its strategies for the site and its links to the city.

The Chilean group’s concept design for the historic waterfront site in the centre of Doha took as its inspiration the rhythmic monumental grain silos that are the industrial legacy of the original flour mills on the site, which has been operation since the 1980s.

However, in a creative riff, the team added to the strict geometry of retained silos a looser grouping of new silos that will act as cooling chimneys circulating air through the site that extends spectacularly on three sides into Doha Bay.

Art Mill will be pre-eminent in Doha’s waterfront ensemble of institutions dedicated to art and is expected to become one of the world’s leading cultural centres. The Chilean architect will now work with Qatar Museums to develop the initial concept design.