UAE explores climate-change response at Venice Architecture Biennale  

UAE explores climate-change response at Venice Architecture Biennale  

VENICE: The theme of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale is “Laboratory of the Future.” The United Arab Emirates’ response is “Aridly Abundant,” a pavilion filled with a series of separated stone walls made of colored, cut rocks.

Curated by Faysal Tabbarah, the pavilion challenges preconceptions around the arid desert land common in the Arabian Peninsula. “Aridly Abundant” investigates what possibilities arise when you stop seeing these dry, hot landscapes as places lacking potential and resources and instead view them as places of abundance.

“Our aim is to change perspectives of arid landscapes as devoid of value and reimagine them as an abundant source of knowledge and resources, by investigating an alternative and contemporary building system rooted in the UAE’s cultural and material environment,” Tabbarah said in a statement.

“Our research integrates land-based practices with contemporary technology such as 3D scanning and 3D printing to present the potential of stone construction as an adaptable and sustainable form of architecture for countries affected by climate change to explore and adapt to their own environments,” he added.

Tabbarah, an associate professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah, worked on the project with his curatorial research team of AUS alumni. The curator’s team also includes three