Visiting our installation in Venice
The Department of Architecture and Design in Abu Dhabi University proudly participates at the biggest global event for Architecture, in Venice, through the European Cultural Centre’s exhibition “#Time-Space-Existence”. It is the fifth edition of the extensive biennial architecture exhibition, running in parallel with Biennale Architettura, from May 22nd, 2021 until November 21th, 2021 at Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora and Giardini della Marinaressa, in Venice, Italy (https://ecc-italy.eu/exhibitions/nowopen).
The Curators of this participation, Dr. Nadia Mounajjed and Dr. Apostolos Kyriazis had the opportunity to visit Venice and Palazzo Bembo in mid-October 2021 and enjoy their work in-person. The work of all 21 students involved (Diana Enab, Heba Farwati, Rama Al Nuaimi, Farasatulislam Mirza and Hala Al Anbari with extended display, and Aya Wajih, Athira Thomas, Reem Aljaroudi, Abeer Mutahar, Umer Mughal, Mohamad Naboulsi, Jawdat Ismail, Najah Shaban, Mariam Al Nashef, Dua'a Al-Rifai, Ayah Darweesh, Farah Alshami, Zaina Hamshari, Sara Ghannam, Yousef Al Rawee and Waad El Digair with models/portfolios) was at impeccable condition and together with the video projection and the interactive plays, they all received very positive feedback from both visitors and organizers.
Hopefully, those interactive elements of the exhibition will soon return to Abu Dhabi, in order to “fuel” the next phase of this research project, which is funded by the Abu Dhabi Award for Research Excellence (AARE) 2019.
Once more, we would like to thank the ECC (European Cultural Center) and in particular Lucia Pedrana and Hadi El Hage for their invitation, hospitality and support throughout the exhibition.
Abu Dhabi’s Vertical Studio is a curated exhibition showcasing work from the “High-rise” Architecture Studio at the Department of Architecture and Design in Abu Dhabi University from the Academic Year 2019-2020. Abu Dhabi’s Vertical Studio aims to critically rethink Abu Dhabi’s emerging economic and environmental resilience. The projects on display echo the modernist grids, the post-modernist narratives and the neoliberal sirens of the new Arab cities, in an attempt to combine structural pragmatism with social and environmental sensibilities. This exhibition acts as a platform to rethink the vertical specters in our cities: It is an architectural inquiry, a critique of the individuality of the tower. A call for cities to reflect upon past failures and mistakes and to open up to future possibilities. The works presented can be seen as both utopian and dystopian, their interpretation is left to the beholder’s imagination.
