CEMENTING THE HOPE TO BUILD A BETTER FUTURE
▶ John Brunton checks out the UAE’s sustainable exhibition, inspired by old coral houses, at the Venice Biennale
As the world slowly tries to imagine and adapt to a post-pandemic reality, the theme of the 17th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture is a stirring call to arms: how will we live together.
With heightened sanitary precautions, social distancing, temperature checks and quarantine for many participants, the Biennale miraculously opened its doors to an expectant general public on Saturday, one of the first genuine global cultural events to return live.
And the UAE’s innovative Wetland exhibition takes its place alongside the 64 nations that will be present in the Serenissima’s historic Giardini and Arsenale venues for the next six months until November 21.
To mark the occasion, the inauguration of Wetland was made in person outside the National Pavilion by Minister of Culture and Youth Noura Al Kaabi to a cosmopolitan audience that included Roberto Cicutto, the new president of La Biennale di Venezia. During a stirring ceremony, she stressed “the National Pavilion UAE is a bridge from the UAE to the world. Participation is an honour, and a rare opportunity to present stories and ideas that define the UAE. This culture of bridge-building and multinational exchange is fundamental to who we are as a nation.”
This year marked the UAE’s tenth participation in the Venice Biennale. “The UAE is also approaching its Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years since our founding,” Ms Al Kaabi said. “The 2021 exhibition Wetland presents a truly insightful idea and a fresh perspective on the global issue of climate change. Developing new and more sustainable ways of balancing the needs of the modern world with the need to protect our environment is absolutely critical, and very high on the UAE’s national strategic agenda, so this project is outstandingly timely.”
Before the minister arrived, Wael Al Awar, who curated Wetland along with Kenichi Teramoto, proudly stood beside his incredible prototype structure built from environment-friendly cement made from recycled brine waste.
The module is inspired by the UAE’s traditional coral houses, but the innovative cement, made from brine extracted during industrial desalination, has the strength and durability to be used in modern architecture in standard brick shape.
“Even before the Biennale’s curator, Hashim Sarkis, announced the theme for 2021, we were already working on the issue of utilising desalination waste that became our Wetland project,” Al Awar said.
“We began three years ago, when it was already evident that architects have to accept a responsibility to act to address the effects of global warming. So his call for the world of architecture to address this crucial question of how we will all live together corresponded perfectly with the ideals behind Wetland.”
The UAE Pavilion audaciously challenges the most basic element of the construction industry: cement.
“For today’s generation of architects,” Al Awar said, “cement has always been there, an essential product but one that is incredibly unsustainable, with one tonne of cement generating one tonne of carbon dioxide. It is quite simply the dumbest material imaginable.”
In previous generations, countries created their own vernacular architecture relying on local resources, such as coral in the UAE, while in other countries it would have been stone, mud, bamboo, wood.
“Obviously coral could not last in the UAE where the population transformed from 10,000 nomadic people to 10 million, but we hope we are now finding an alternative to concrete for future construction projects,” Al Awar said.
“And we found that inspiration right here in the UAE’s salt flats, the sabkha. As the salt dried, we could see that it created natural blocks.
“We then realised that these had already been used in ancient constructions in Siwa on the Egyptian border with Libya and Tunisia’s Chott el Jerid, whose traditional architecture reached a global audience when [the giant salt flats] were used as a key location for the film Star Wars.”
There is ongoing, crucial scientific input to this project, with the curators collaborating with NYU Abu Dhabi, the American University of Sharjah and the University of Tokyo, who are working towards a patent to transform the industrial waste generated by desalination into the magical ingredient to create building bricks.
The Wetland installation is complemented by an emotive series of photographs of the sabkha by renowned New York-based Emirati artist, Farah Al Qasimi.
There is no question of using the timeless salt blocks created on the sabkha, Al Awar argued. “This unique region must be preserved and protected at all costs because it acts as the lungs of the UAE, purifying the air by absorbing carbon dioxide just as the trees of Brazil’s rainforest,” he said.
“This Future Vernacular architecture, which combines local resources with modern technology, may be adapted for other countries outside the UAE that generate desalination waste.”
But, he said, it is not a product that should be exported or shipped around the world to build the cities of the future.
“That is simply against nature, defeating the whole ambition of this project. Local produce for local use, a viable alternative to cement’s global carbon footprint,” he said.
We hope [to] find an alternative to concrete ... And we found inspiration right here in the UAE’s salt flats, the sabkha
WAEL AL AWAR
Architect, co-curator of Wetland