From the Archive of the Aga Khan Award of Architecture:
The National Museum of Bahrain was intended to be the first phase of the Civic Center Complex at the intersection of two highways that connect the center of the old city of Muharraq and the modern town center. Due to financial difficulty, other buildings of the civic center have not been built. The idea to build a national museum at a better location within a civic center came from the government of Bahrain, through the Ministry of Information. The former museum in Muharraq could no longer hold and properly exhibit the collection, due to new findings of rich archaeological sites in Bahrain. With the assistance of the International Council of Museums, the program was formulated and the architectural firm KHRAS (now KHR arkitekter AS) was appointed to design the new civic complex. (Taken from the introduction to the article)
Ibrahim, Abdelbaki Mohamed (ed). 1999. The National Museum of Bahrain. In Alam al-Bina. Cairo: Center for Planning and Architectural Studies, 10-12/214.
