Northwestern University in Qatar has broken ground on a new building in Education City near Qatari capital Doha.

The 32,520m2 building, designed by American architect Antoine Predock, will feature four video production studios, two 150-seat lecture halls, a black box theatre, a two-studio radio station facility, a multimedia newsroom, a library, a conference centre and other facilities.

The external façade of the building will feature large limestone blocks intended to resemble a natural desert formation while internal space will feature gardens and terraces to help facilitate media-related study, production and research programmes.

The new building is scheduled to be completed in 2014.