National Museum of Qatar

This guide to the National Museum of Qatar in Doha follows architect Jean Nouvel's sketch of interlocking discs modeled on a desert rose, and the engineering problem it created: almost none of the panels repeat, yet the budget demanded reuse. It traces how fabricators worked from a few thousand master molds and modeled the whole skeleton in software for the first time. Look for the seam lines where panels never quite line up as you walk the building.