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.
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
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Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
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Ahmed Raza
UAE cricket captain
Age: 31
Born: Sharjah
Role: Left-arm spinner
One-day internationals: 31 matches, 35 wickets, average 31.4, economy rate 3.95
T20 internationals: 41 matches, 29 wickets, average 30.3, economy rate 6.28
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A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
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