On Saturday, the Venice Architectural Biennale returns with a striking theme, challenging participants to imagine what the future might hold. The UAE has returned for a fifth time, with a project inspired by the Hajar mountains, exploring how arid climates can be reimagined as sources of abundance.
The La Biennale di Venezia, also known as the Venice Biennale, is a long-established platform for the arts, dating back to 1895. Since then, the festival has grown to include elements of music, cinema, theatre and dance. In 1980, the first International Architecture Exhibition officially took place and has since been held every other year. The event has become an important platform for architects to display their solutions to humanistic and technological issues affecting contemporary society.
The UAE, which has over the years developed a distinct and evolving architectural identity, first joined international architects and pavilions at the 14th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014. The debut national pavilion for the UAE, Lest We Forget: Structures of Memory in the United Arab Emirates was created in response to the theme, Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014.
Curated by Michele Bambling in collaboration with the research team of architects Adina Hempel and Marco Sosa, the UAE’s first official offering to the biennale presented an archive of architectural and urban development in the UAE.
With a strong emphasis on the 1970s and1980s, the exhibition examined how public and residential architecture, built within the rapid expanding urban context of the country, shaped and established the UAE’s architectural language and its emergence on the international stage.
The exhibition featured pull-out drawers, in a large dark room, for viewers to examine. The drawers contained detailed drawings and photographs of the UAE’s architectural history.
It was one of the first instances where an international audience was able to see and understand the UAE’s architectural history beyond the image of a country whose glass sky scrapers rose in the middle of the desert seemingly overnight.
Since 2014, the UAE has actively presented its architectural perspective at the biennale in thorough, relevant and nuanced exhibitions. In 2016, the UAE presented Transformations: The Emirati National House, curated by Yasser Elsheshtawy, author and at the time associate professor of architecture at UAE University. The exhibition explored the transformative aspect of the housing model of Emirati national homes, known as Sha’abi’ [folk] houses.
Lifescapes Beyond Bigness was the UAE’s National Pavilion exhibition in 2018. The exhibition highlighted the play between built environments and informal social life, based on scenes of everyday life in the UAE – through four human-scale urban landscapes that included images, technical drawings, maps and three-dimensional models.
Due to Covid-19, the 2020 edition of the Venice Biennale was postponed to the following year. The 2021 exhibition, curated by Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto, was entitled Wetland and presented an environmentally friendly, salt-based cement alternative capable of reducing the construction industry’s impact on the climate.
Wetland won the Golden Lion Award for Best National Participation that year and was described by the Biennale jury as, “a bold experiment that encourages us to think about the relationship between waste and production on a local and global scale and opens us to new construction possibilities between craft and high technology".
This year's Venice Biennale runs from Saturday until November 26, and the UAE Pavilion is curated by Faysal Tabbarah, associate dean and associate professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah.
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Men from Barca's class of 99
Crystal Palace - Frank de Boer
Everton - Ronald Koeman
Manchester City - Pep Guardiola
Manchester United - Jose Mourinho
Southampton - Mauricio Pellegrino
LAST 16
SEEDS
Liverpool, Manchester City, Barcelona, Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Valencia, Juventus
PLUS
Real Madrid, Tottenham, Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Napoli, Borussia Dortmund, Lyon, Chelsea
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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The%20Beekeeper
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The five stages of early child’s play
From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:
1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.
2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.
3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.
4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.
5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.
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The Baghdad Clock
Shahad Al Rawi, Oneworld
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
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FINAL SCORES
Fujairah 130 for 8 in 20 overs
(Sandy Sandeep 29, Hamdan Tahir 26 no, Umair Ali 2-15)
Sharjah 131 for 8 in 19.3 overs
(Kashif Daud 51, Umair Ali 20, Rohan Mustafa 2-17, Sabir Rao 2-26)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
AIDA%20RETURNS
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The years Ramadan fell in May
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Manchester United v Young Boys, Tuesday, midnight (UAE)
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
