Standing on an artificial island off Doha’s harbour, Qatar’s new Museum of Islamic Art looks like a leftover from an epic Atlantean production. It has that stage-set flatness, and that odd cocktail aesthetic of ancient past, postmodern and off-key speculation that characterises science-fiction future-worlds. Blockbusters demand visions that suggest something hovering between utopia and dystopia, the wonders of imperial Rome tempered with the eerie megalomania of Mussolini’s version. In the searing sunshine of Qatari daytime, it has a cheesiness about it, a dated, sub-art-deco chunk seated self-satisfied between a pair of operatic obelisks.

But as you approach, it gets better. Suddenly the chunky stonework and sharp edges begin to make sense, it becomes more as you’d imagine a castle or a citadel must have looked when new, powerful but crafted. Then, once inside, everything resolves itself. This, you realise, is real architecture.