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Saudi Arabia's Venice Biennale pavilion prompts cultural engagement though space

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Saudi Arabia’s pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2023 explores the tangible and intangible in the nation’s architecture, diving into the relationship people have with space.

A collaboration between architect and Dahr Studio managing partner AlBara Saimaldaha and sisters Basma and Noura Bouzo, curators and cofounders of &Bouq, Irth marks Saudi Arabia’s third presence at La Biennale di Venezia. A commentary on the coexistence of nostalgia, legacy and innovation, the pavilion design uplifts materiality as a source of cultural storytelling. It’s on display at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition’s Arsenale until 26 November 2023.

Responding to this year’s biennale theme The Laboratory of the Future, Saimaldaha and the Bouzo sisters conceived a layered experience that looks at materials through the history of Saudi Arabian architecture. Visitors can experience Saudi craftsmanship, traditional decoration and artisanal techniques through the content and by experiencing the three main structures themselves.  Earth is a primary medium in the country’s construction, and it’s referenced heavily in the pavilion, which embodies the colours and textures found from Saudi Arabia’s desert dunes to its Red Sea coast. The journey is enriched through sensory activations – like a central olfactory installation drawing on Arab culture’s rich relationship with scent – and interactive opportunities to add to the pavilion with vernacular clay tiles. 

While the past and present are in direct dialogue with Irth, the future is omnipresent in the space, with new technologies emphasized. Symbolizing this forward vision is a 3D-printed clay column that, standing alone in a hall, creates light patterns in the space. After the event it will be transported to the bottom of the Red Sea, where it can stimulate the growth of a new marine ecosystem. ‘We engaged with various institutions, local organizations, architects, and individual practitioners to gain insight into the different experimentations and innovations being conducted in Saudi Arabia and the wider region,’ explain assistant curators Joharah Lou Pabalate and Cyril Zammit. ‘The exhibition serves as a conduit for a larger conversation on the perspectives at plays and what they mean for the future of materiality and built environments.’

Above all, Irth is meant to get visitors thinking about their cultural relationship with the built environment. As say Basma and Noura Bouzo, ‘The pavilion brings to the forefront the notion of collaborative practice as a foundation of the laboratory of the future. It invites visitors to breach their role as spectators and actively engage in the process – the experience itself mirrors the future of architecture and materiality as a work in progress, determined not only by the practitioners but by its occupants.’

Irth is on display until 26 November 2023 at La Biennale di Venezia.

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