Mariam Nihal
Saudi Gazette
The National Pavilion UAE promotes UAE’s participation at the Venice Biennale, where it maintains a permanent pavilion on the Arsenale – Sale d’Armi, on an international stage.
This year’s exhibition explores the transformation of the Emirati national house, also known as Sha’abi (folk) house.
Numerous national, or Sha’abi, houses today represent a diverse composition of architectural components cultivated throughout the years and the change from an essential model to individualized homes that have turned into a vital segment of UAE’s development.
The Biennale, which was established in 1895, alternates each year between art and architecture exhibitions; for the 15th International Architecture Exhibition. Khulood Al Atiyat, manager of Art, Culture and Heritage for the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation said this year they invited Professor Yasser Elsheshtawy to curate the 2016 exhibition.
According to Al Atiyat, Elsheshtawy is an expert on the urban development and built environment of the region and has brought a wealth of knowledge to the project. “And with his team Elsheshtawy has developed a unique, informed exhibition which has interpreted the overarching theme of this year’s Biennale in a very original way,” she added. One of Yasser’s stated aims in developing his curatorial theme was to refocus the dialogue around the architecture of the UAE, moving away from the clichés of luxury which often play out in international perceptions of the Gulf region; instead, Transformations: The Emirati National House highlights a fundamental, yet often overlooked element of the UAE’s cultural landscape.
“This approach very much reflects the National Pavilion UAE’s commitment to promoting a cultural dialogue between the UAE and the international community by participating in the thoughtful discourse and exchange of ideas for which the Biennale is so renowned,” Al Atiyat said.
Saudi Gazette caught up with Yasser Elsheshtawy, curator for the National Pavilion UAE la Biennale di Venezia and Associate Professor of Architecture at the UAE University in Al Ain, who will be presenting the exhibition. “By enabling change and adaptation, Emirati National Houses have evolved into an ongoing expression of local cultures and lifestyles,” Elsheshtawy told Saudi Gazette. Commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development, the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia will be held in Venice from May 28 to November 27.
SG: Tell us about your participation at la Biennale di Venezia this year.
YE: I’m honoured to be invited to curate the National Pavilion UAE at the Venice Biennale this year.
At each edition of the Biennale, the UAE presents an exhibition exploring an aspect of the nation’s arts or architectural practices. The 2016 exhibition, ‘Transformations: The Emirati National House’will be presented at the UAE’s permanent pavilion in Venice’s Arsenale – Sale d’Armi between May 28 and November 27.
In curating this exhibition, I have focused on the Emirati National House – also known as Sha’abi houses – as a unique architectural experiment. Exhibiting as a nation at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale offers us an opportunity to engage in a meaningful way with the intersection of social and architectural landscapes in the UAE.
For many, the Emirates are associated with headline-grabbing skyscrapers and clichés of artificiality, ultra-luxury and mass consumption; with their informal, lived-in sense of place, National Houses offer a perhaps unexpected perspective to the Biennale’s international audience.
National Houses were planned throughout the UAE from the early 1970s, when a large proportion of the population still lived a nomadic lifestyle, as part of Sheikh Zayed’s vision to modernize the new nation through infrastructure development. The exhibition draws on archival materials to explore the history of Sha’abiya neighbourhoods, but will look equally at the vibrant places they have become today.
SG: You explore the standard typology of Sha’abi houses in the exhibition. Can you discuss the evolution of the houses and how they have become a part of modern day architecture?
YE: National Houses were designed as a standard typology, which could be easily replicated across the country, in order to rapidly develop a large number of new homes. Architects, in collaboration with local decision-makers, developed a basic housing design composed of a series of rooms overlooking a courtyard, which aimed to reflect the preferences of the nomadic population who would reside there. They were perceived as a ‘gift to the nation’.
Over the years and decades since the first houses were implemented, this basic design has proved to be highly adaptable.
As Emirati lifestyles and tastes have changed significantly in line with the modernization of the nation, many long-term residents have carried out their own alterations to their homes: for example, adding extensions and new rooms, designing decorative elements like doorways, repainting in bright colors or landscaping their gardens.
Strong Emirati communities developed in these neighborhoods, and they continue to thrive today, sustained by longstanding attachments to homes, vivid memories and an infrastructure that encourages neighborliness.
The exhibition focuses on this transformative aspect of the Sha’abi house.
By enabling change and adaptation, Emirati National Houses have evolved into an ongoing expression of local cultures and lifestyles. They are an important, though often overlooked, component of the nation’s architectural vocabulary, and I am very pleased to have such a prestigious international platform to share this element of the UAE’s story at the Venice Biennale.
SG: How do you link
this to ‘quality of life’?
YE: Alejandro Aravena, the curator of this year’s International Architecture Exhibition and recent winner of the Pritzker Prize, called for each national pavilion to present an exhibition addressing in some way the complex relationship between the built environment and the quality of inhabitants’ lives.
The UAE’s pavilion will have a clear link with Aravena’s overarching theme.
The Sha’abi house presents a successful example of socially conscious architecture that is not concerned with spectacular or iconic design.
Instead, the design is flexible to the needs of its residents, allowing for change and development, personalization and aesthetic differentiation.
The extent of change varied from one city and neighborhood to the next, yet the main idea remains: an architectural design that families could personalize to their lifestyles.
This transformative possibility accounts for the enduring success of Sha’abi houses as lived-in homes and neighborhoods, where vibrant communities thrive – demonstrating the positive quality of life, which this farsighted infrastructure development project enabled.
