The architecture of abundance
The UAE’s curator in Venice wants to share lessons from a challenging environment.
By Ben East
In a warming world, architecture can take lessons from some of the most parched regions on Earth. “I want to consider what these landscapes can become if we imagine them as spaces of abundance,” says Faysal Tabbarah, associate professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah, who will curate the UAE’s national pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, which opens on May 20. Besides upending assumptions about the Arab world’s abundance, he wants to challenge the meaning of abundance itself.
Tabbarah breaks down his logic into three parts, “almost like a past, present and future approach,” he says. “First, I want to uncover the historical, existing, and ongoing arid land-based practices. Then I want to think about building with the materials of arid landscapes, which challenges mainstream supply chains and the construction and materials economy. And finally, I want to look at the immediate future: aridity is a condition that will become the reality of many places, whereas it is a historical condition in the UAE and in the wider region. So what are some of the provocations we can put out into the world for people who might be uncomfortable or unused to dealing with it?”
Tabbarah notes that Kuwait’s 2021 pavilion—and its presentation Space Wars, which sought to highlight the role of the desert, the hinterland, in the functioning of the city-state—has continued to spark conversations beyond the Gulf. That is his aim, too.
“One of the first things we decided was that we’re not going to construct anything in the UAE and ship it to Venice,” he says. “This pavilion is all about how the lessons we’re learning can be applied anywhere. It must relate to a global audience. What you want to encourage architects to do is solve issues within the immediate environment in which they work. The first idea being: ‘how can I solve this problem within this 10-metre radius?’” It offers a radical shift in thinking. “Perhaps some of these attitudes towards land-based practices can be highlighted and scaled.”
Faysal Tabbarah, associate professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah, and co-founder of experimental studio Architecture + Other Things, will curate the UAE’s national pavilion at the International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, which opens on May 20. Photo: Augustine Parades Courtesy of National Pavilion UAE La Biennale di Venezia.
