UAE exhibition a big draw at Venice Biennale
ABU DHABI: After a successful 6-month run, the National Pavilion UAE’S exhibition at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in 2018 closed on November 25. The 2018 edition of the Venice Biennale drew a total of over 275,000 visitors from around the world to its exploration of global architectural ideas and conversations.
The UAE’S exhibition, Lifescapes Beyond Bigness, highlighted the interplay between the urban environment and everyday social life in the UAE through images, technical drawings, case studies, maps and three-dimensional scale models. The exhibition was curated by Dr Khaled Alawadi, an Emirati architect and urban planner and assistant professor of sustainable Urbanism at Abu Dhabi’s Mas dar Institute, part of Khalifa University of Science and Technology.
“The UAE’S exhibition this year was really well-received by both local and international visitors, relecting the robust research and insightful analysis that it offered. Lifescapes Beyond Bigness resonated with audience both academic ally and emotionally and relects our commitment to contribute signiicant and important ideas to the Venice Biennale at each edition, telling the untold stories of the UAE through art, architecture and culture,” says Khulood Al Atiyat, Manager of Arts, Culture and Heritage at the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation. The National Pavilion UAE is commissioned by the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development.
“The interplay between the urban environment and how we live our daily lives is a critical issue for city planning and development in the region and around the world,” says Dr Khaled Alawadi.
“Lifescapes Beyond Bigness considers the different scales and systems of urban living and the inluence they play on shaping everyday urbanism. The exhibition draws our attention to the merits and virtues of human scale landscapes in an effort to highlight the design and social science perspectives on urban design in shaping cities.”
A book edited by Dr Khaled Alawadi titled Lifescapes Beyond Bigness accompanies the exhibition. The publication aims to document and map the different typologies and quotidian qualities of everyday urbanism found in UAE’S different urban scales. The book tells an eloquent and inspiring narrative of the Emirates’ unique form of urbanism, revealing hidden sites and concealed stories across four typologies addressed in four core chapters, namely: “The Neighborhood”; “The Network: Street and Sikkak”; “The Urban Block”; and “Urban Space and the Natural Landscape”.