Latest news with #AzzaAboualam
Khaleej Times
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Emirati architect Azza Aboualam takes UAE climate solutions to Venice Biennale 2025
In May, the days in Venice are longer than usual — so are the queues outside exhibitions in Giardini and the Arsenale complex, the two major hubs of the prestigious Venice Biennale. This year, the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the biennale (which is also known as 'the Olympics' of the art and architectural world) opened to the public on May 10, with around 66 countries displaying their finest cultural productions. The UAE, which has been hosting award-winning pavilions at the biennale since 2014, returns this time with a theme that couldn't be more relevant — the importance of food production, sustainable agrarian practices, greenhouse architecture, and climate strategies in arid regions like the UAE. Commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture, the national pavilion, aptly titled Pressure Cooker, has been curated by architect and academic, Azza Aboualam. Interestingly, Aboualam, who is based between Dubai and Sharjah, is the first Emirati woman curator representing the national pavilion of the UAE at Venice Architecture Biennale. The installations in Pressure Cooker (including multimedia and audio content) invite visitors to examine Aboualam and her team's extensive research, which focuses on the transformative power of greenhouses and how UAE is responding to the challenges of climate change. Aboualam, who is an assistant professor at the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University and co-founder of Holesum Studio, was selected after an open call for proposals to curate the national pavilion of the UAE in 2023. As the pavilion creates unprecedented buzz in Venice, we speak to her about her curatorial concept, the UAE's role in driving solutions to the looming environmental crisis, and what we can learn from local wisdom and indigenous climate systems. Is it true that the Eureka moment for this project came to you when your mother expressed surprise after sampling some desert blueberries you offered her — 'But you need greenhouses to produce these?' she reportedly remarked? Yes, the whole project really started from that moment with my mother. She was shocked when I told her the blueberries we were eating were locally grown. 'In the desert? They must be grown in greenhouses,' she said. That sparked something. I started researching how greenhouses are used in the UAE, and quickly noticed that they are mostly approached from a technical or agricultural angle, not architectural. With Pressure Cooker, we reframe the greenhouse as a spatial and formal composition, in addition to it being a tool to grow food. Through design and experimentation, we explored how architecture can enhance food production in extreme climates — responding to sunlight, heat, and water scarcity. It's not about offering a perfect solution, but rather opening up ways in which architecture can support food security and resilience, particularly in arid environments like the UAE. The installations in Pressure Cooker highlight traditional farming methods and there's all this research that visitors are free to explore. Can you share the idea behind recreating greenhouses as objects of art? In collaboration with Holesum Studio, the exhibition focuses on three greenhouse assemblies, each using a modular 'kit-of-parts' that we designed. Each configuration explores different design variables — roof shape, shading, wall height — and how they impact interior climate and crop growth. We also included regional crops to show what's possible. The aim was to make the research visible, showing the process from fieldwork to construction, and inviting visitors to think about design as experimentation and imagine how architecture and food production can overlap. Greenhouses are sanctuaries for growth and birth but in a way, they also stand as metaphors or seeds for new ideas. They are spaces of protection, growth, and transformation. In many ways, they reflect the design process itself. We saw them as spaces where ideas take root and where adaptation becomes possible. For us, the greenhouse became a way to talk about care, context, and how architecture can create the conditions for change as well as act as third spaces in arid climates. The UAE relies mostly on food imports. As an architect and researcher, what do you believe can be done to make the UAE more self-sufficient in terms of food production? Self-sufficiency in the UAE will require a mix of traditional knowledge and new tools. Pressure Cooker suggests that adaptive, small-scale systems, designed with climate in mind, can be part of the solution. If we rethink food production as a spatial issue, not just a technological one, we can build more resilient and locally attuned infrastructures that communities can access and maintain. What can countries with harsh climates, like the UAE and others in the Gulf region, learn from Pressure Cooker? They can take from Pressure Cooker the idea that architecture can help us think with the land, not just on top of it. Harsh environments aren't obstacles to work around, they are part of the equation. The project proposes small-scale, adaptable systems that respond to heat, light, and resource limits through design. It's not about importing solutions, but developing ones rooted in local conditions. If we pay attention to how land behaves, how it retains heat, where shade falls, and how air moves, we can shape more efficient, resilient spaces for food production, even in the most challenging settings. During your research, you visited farms in the UAE. In your view, how is the UAE coping with cultivating vegetation for the local population and what are the impacts of climate change on this region? In the UAE, agriculture faces significant challenges due to the country's hot climate and limited water resources. However, there have been notable strides toward sustainability. The government has introduced innovations like hydroponics, vertical farming, and controlled-environment agriculture to mitigate these challenges and ensure food security. There's also a growing interest in researching drought-resistant crops and more efficient water management systems. In terms of climate change, the UAE is highly vulnerable. Rising temperatures, water scarcity, and desertification are key concerns, which is why the country is investing in research to develop sustainable agricultural practices. The impacts of climate change are already being felt through increased temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns, which further strain existing agricultural resources and traditional farming methods. What is the best response you've received at Venice so far and what has been your personal takeaway from participating in this biennale? There were many interesting conversations and comments, but one in particular struck me. One of the visitors told me the exhibition reminded her of their farming techniques in Oman — along with the different ways they've adapted to their context and how architecture can play a role in that. That felt like success to me. It meant we created spaces that visitors could visually recognise but also where people could slow down and reflect and realise the potential in their slight alterations and modifications. Personally, my biggest takeaway has been how architecture can function as a bridge — especially on a global scale like the Venice Biennale. It reminded me that sometimes, the most impactful ideas are the ones that emerge slowly, through conversation and contemplation. Venice, as a lagoon, is probably as fragile to the rising tides of climate catastrophe as the UAE. This is a city where nothing is grown locally and most of the food arrives on boats. Does your exhibition feature nods to Venice? Yes, it does and the parallels between Venice and the UAE were intentional. Both are places where sustenance has historically depended on the outside world to meet a large number of its needs, in terms of food and other goods. Venice receives its food by boat, echoing the UAE's own logistical choreography of food imports, as proven by the archival research conducted for the project. In Pressure Cooker, and the space in the pavilion, we reference the Veneto region in the materiality of the space. The rammed earth element, for example, relies on the same recipe as the one we experimented with in Dubai during the design-build phase but here it has a pink undertone due to the materials and colour of sand from the region. The crops that you see are at a Venetian growth phase and echo Venice's climate. Other nods include spatial references and thematic echoes that invite the visitor to think about how geography, climate, and trade shape our food systems and our futures, and how architecture can play a role. What made you first become interested in architecture? My interest in architecture grew out of a fascination, as a young girl, about how spaces influence human behaviour. Growing up and witnessing the urban development of the UAE, I was fascinated by how architecture responded to both the environment and culture, as well as its users. I started seeing architecture not just as buildings but also as a way to solve problems and create environments where people can interact, work, and live more effectively. As an architect, I would describe myself as practical and context-driven. I focus on solutions that work for the specific place and people, whether that's through sustainability, material choices, or just making sure a space feels right for the people who use it, with a focus on designing spaces that have a lasting impact and respond to both their immediate and broader environments. I grew up witnessing rapid change around me, and still do. That pace of transformation made me curious about what we choose to keep, especially in our memories, and how cities are constantly changing. I was drawn to architecture not just for its creative potential but also for how it holds memory and meaning. Research came during my time at Yale and grew tremendously after that. I was curious about architecture and its strong ties to history, form, and systems of care. Becoming the first Emirati curator at the Venice Biennale for its architectural version wasn't something I imagined early on, but it became a way to reflect on where we are as a region and where we might go. It wasn't just about representation. It was about opening a dialogue that felt simultaneously personal and global. Finally, how can architects contribute to a global discourse on climate change? Architects are uniquely positioned to address climate change because the built environment is both a major contributor to global emissions while it could be used as a powerful platform for sustainable solutions. Through material choices, energy strategies, urban planning, and even reframing policy, architects can lead the way in reducing environmental impact. But more than that, architecture shapes how people live, move, and interact with their environments — so it's also about understanding culture and human behaviour and re-framing it through the built environment.
Gulf Today
10-05-2025
- General
- Gulf Today
Pressure Cooker serves food security at National Pavilion UAE in Venice
The National Pavilion UAE at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia (May 10 – Nov. 23, pre-opening May 8, 9), has opened with Pressure Cooker, curated by Azza Aboualam, Emirati architect and Assistant Professor at Zayed University and Co-founder of Holesum Studio. The exhibition poses a central question: Using the UAE as a case study, how can architecture contribute to greater global food security? Pressure Cooker could refer to the kitchen appliance and its versatility, the buildup of humidity within the greenhouse, or the intensifying pressures of the ongoing climate crisis. As climate change disrupts agricultural systems, traditional farming methods face mounting threats, from soil degradation to temperature extremes. The exhibition examines how architecture can respond to these challenges by proposing a series of experimental adaptive greenhouse assemblies for arid landscapes. It situates the UAE's agricultural landscape in the larger global context, exploring how architectural thinking can support versatile and resilient food production practices at both individual and community scales. Developed through a methodology that combines archival research, fieldwork and design-build experimentation, Pressure Cooker introduces a modular kit-of-parts for greenhouse assemblies, specifically catering to hot, arid climates. The kit breaks down the architectural vocabulary of the greenhouse into its basic components: roof, wall, floor, tools, and materials. They can be reconfigured in many ways, in different combinations that respond to climatic conditions and crop requirements. The approach proposes a future in which food production and architectural form are intertwined and can be integrated in our built and lived environments anywhere. A panoramic view of Pressure Cooker. Visitors will encounter a series of experimental greenhouse assemblies constructed using different combinations of the kit's components. Each assembly explores how inputs such as sunlight, shading, external temperature, irrigation, ventilation, and thermal mass and outputs such as interior temperature, light levels, humidity and energy use, can be negotiated through architectural form. The inputs and outputs also influence crop yield and detail the most effective ways to design and configure each greenhouse assembly. The exhibition includes crops with regional and historical significance such as cucumbers, while other assemblies demonstrate the ability to grow species rarely associated with desert climates, such as blueberries. The greenhouse assemblies respond to environmental challenges specific to the UAE, while also serving as a testing ground for how such structures might adapt to different contexts, such as Venice. Pressure Cooker thus brings together site-specific cultivation in Venice with research rooted in the UAE; it affirms architecture's role in shaping dynamic, adaptable food infrastructures across diverse climates. The installation is accompanied by multimedia and audio material that traces the exhibition's research phases. Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi, UAE Minister of Culture, said that 'Pressure Cooker illustrates how local design solutions can contribute to new perspectives on sustainable urban living.' Angela Migally, Executive Director, Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation (SHF), said: 'Growth, understanding, and dialogue are essential to the continued evolution of the UAE's extraordinary architecture, art, and culture community.' The Foundation is the Commissioner of the Pavilion. Based in Abu Dhabi, the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation is a private not-for-profit foundation committed to the cultivation of a more creative, connected, and thriving UAE community. Laila Binbrek, Director, National Pavilion UAE, commented that 'the National Pavilion UAE continues to play a leading role in shaping the UAE's cultural landscape ... This is reflected in Azza Aboualam's journey, who first engaged with the Pavilion as an intern in 2014. This year's exhibition introduces a new critical lens ... thoughtfully connected to the climate realities of our time.' Azza Aboualam said: 'The exhibition examines how architecture can help identify and address challenges in food production, bringing the UAE closer to its food security goals.' Professor Michael Allen, Acting Vice President of Zayed University, said that 'the partnership between Zayed University and the National Pavilion UAE is an example of our commitment to advancing creativity through research, education, and collaboration.' A publication titled Pressure Cooker Recipes: An Architectural Cookbook edited by Azza Aboualam and published by Kaph Books, accompanies the exhibition. Holesum Studio is an interdisciplinary architecture and design practice based in New York, USA, and Sharjah, UAE. Azza Aboualam co-founded the studio in 2021, a few years after graduating from Yale School of Architecture. Her scholarly interests include the intersection of memory, architecture and society in the Middle East and North Africa region. She worked with the UAE Ministry of Culture's Architecture Initiative, and her field research, sketches and writing were published in the book In Search of Spaces of Coexistence: An Architect's Journey (2019). She also contributed research to Building Sharjah (2021), edited by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi and Todd Reisz, and Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai (2020), written by Todd Reisz. While working in Sharjah's Department of Public Works, Aboualam managed the design and construction of large-scale projects such as the Aga Khan Award–winning Wasit Wetland Center. The National Pavilion UAE is an independent, non-profit organisation, with a permanent pavilion at the Arsenale – Sale d'Armi. The award-winner curates the untold stories about the UAE's arts and architecture through its participation in the International Art and Architecture Exhibitions organised by La Biennale di Venezia. It is supported by the Ministry of Culture which champions Emirati cultural, artistic, and heritage institutions, providing a platform for creative and talented individuals across various fields, and promoting dialogue between different cultures.
Al Etihad
08-05-2025
- General
- Al Etihad
Minister of Culture opens UAE Pavilion in Venice Biennale
8 May 2025 20:02 VENICE (WAM)Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi, UAE Minister of Culture, inaugurated the UAE National Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia on pavilion features an innovative exhibition titled 'Pressure Cooker', curated by Azza Aboualam, an architect and Assistant Professor at Zayed University, who also serves as Co-founder and Director of Research at Holesum exhibition poses a central research question, 'Using the United Arab Emirates as a case study, how can architecture contribute to enhancing food security?'. This inquiry emerges in the context of growing challenges facing traditional agricultural systems due to climate change, including soil degradation and rising on in-depth archival and contemporary research in the UAE, the exhibition explores how architecture can respond to these challenges by presenting architectural proposals for greenhouse structures. It places the UAE's agricultural landscape within a broader global context, examining how architectural thinking can support diverse and resilient food production practices at both individual and community through a three-dimensional research methodology that combines archival research, fieldwork, and practical experimentation in design and construction, the exhibition introduces design criteria for modular greenhouse structures specifically tailored to hot, arid climates. These modular structures can be reconfigured in various ways, providing adaptable solutions that respond to local climatic his opening remarks, Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi emphasised the importance of the event, stating, "Architecture shapes our interactions with the environment and has the potential to drive sustainable solutions for the future. The UAE National Pavilion's participation at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale reaffirms our commitment to global dialogue on design innovation. The 'Pressure Cooker' exhibition highlights how local design solutions can contribute to new perspectives on sustainable urban living."He added, "Over the years, the UAE National Pavilion has become a vital platform for showcasing the depth and diversity of the UAE's creative and intellectual landscape. With each edition, it continues to support local talent, foster cultural exchange, and position the UAE as an active participant in global conversations on architecture, art, and design. Its growing recognition reflects the dynamic and evolving nature of the UAE's cultural scene and its commitment to shaping a sustainable, interconnected future through creativity."Angela Migally, Executive Director of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, said, "Through our longstanding partnership with the UAE National Pavilion, we continue to provide a space for meaningful conversations that inspire new ideas and strengthen connections. Growth, understanding, and dialogue are essential to the continued evolution of the UAE's extraordinary architecture, art, and culture community. We are pleased to support 'Pressure Cooker' and its exploration of resilience and the role of design in shaping a more sustainable future."Laila Binbrek, Director of the UAE National Pavilion, commented, "The UAE National Pavilion continues to play a leading role in shaping the country's cultural landscape, enhancing its impact and legacy through initiatives that support architectural discourse in the UAE. This is exemplified by Azza Aboualam's journey—from joining the pavilion as an intern in 2024 to leading this year's exhibition. 'Pressure Cooker' presents a new critical perspective, proposing a future-oriented, multidisciplinary, and climate-responsive approach to architecture."Azza Aboualam, the exhibition's curator, explained, "As the agricultural world undergoes continuous transformation and the threats of climate change intensify, challenges related to food and water security become increasingly urgent, especially in the Gulf region. While prevailing global perspectives on food security often emphasize technological innovation, 'Pressure Cooker' proposes an alternative—creating a shared responsibility among local communities."Professor Michael Allen, Acting Vice President of Zayed University, highlighted the significance of the partnership, stating, "The collaboration between Zayed University and the UAE National Pavilion is an example of our commitment to advancing creativity through research, education, and collaboration. We are proud to support the groundbreaking work of Emirati architect Azza Aboualam, whose project explores the evolving relationship between architecture and food production in the UAE. This initiative provides our students and faculty with direct engagement with innovative architectural research, demonstrating how bold ideas and academic innovation can lead to meaningful local and global impact." Accompanying the exhibition is a publication titled 'All Things Delicious: Architectural Recipes from Pressure Cooker,' edited by Azza Aboualam and published by Kaph Books. This publication blends research, essays, and creative contributions, exploring the intersection between architecture and food production over time. It adopts a cookbook format divided into five main chapters, with texts and illustrations highlighting agricultural practices in arid climates and beyond. It offers new perspectives on the relationship between food production, climate-adaptive design, and urban infrastructure.
The National
08-05-2025
- General
- The National
UAE pavilion rethinks greenhouses for a hotter and hungrier world at Venice Biennale
It all began with a modest box of blueberries. One day, Emirati architect Azza Aboualam brought home groceries and her mother, tasting the blueberries, asked where they were from. To her surprise, they had been grown in the UAE. Blueberries thrive in cool and temperate weather, making their presence in the UAE's arid desert intriguing. 'Where do the desert blueberries come from?' says Aboualam, curator of this year's National Pavilion UAE. 'The question instigated the entire project.' Greenhouses were, of course, the answer – but the discovery prompted Aboualam to rethink how they are built in the UAE and explore the deeper 'back-and-forth relationship between architecture and plants'. At this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, the National Pavilion UAE has turned its focus to food security, exploring how architecture can support agriculture in a changing climate. Greenhouses date back to ancient Rome, where Emperor Tiberius used simple structures to grow cucumbers year-round. Modern variations emerged in the 17th century, gradually evolving through advances in glassmaking and heating. Today, greenhouses are a central component of agriculture around the world. However, they are still very much a European design, and even the greenhouses found in the UAE have been retrofitted and modified for the local context. In short, the technology was never considered from the ground-up for arid environments. Aboualam sought to revamp the greenhouse specifically for the UAE climate. Working with her team at Holesum Studio – a practice based between Sharjah and New York that she cofounded – she developed a series of modular greenhouse assemblies or 'kits-of-parts'. Each kit contains the essential components to create a greenhouse – roof, wall, floor, tools and materials – designed to adapt to different crops, climates and site conditions. The exhibition, Pressure Cooker, presents several assemblies as examples. It transforms the National Pavilion UAE venue into a controlled-environment agricultural site. The first of the greenhouses has a broken arched roof that facilitates airflow. Basil grows in pots set on rammed-earth platforms, raised just above ankle height to shield them from the ground's heat. Tomato shrubs hang from steel pipes, closer to the arched roof. 'The vertical arch and the way it's broken, it can be fitted with panels that open and close when the seasons shift from extremes,' Aboualam says. 'You can open it up let out heat and hot air, and then in the spring it would do the opposite.' This kind of assembly, Aboualam adds, works best in urban areas closer to the coast, such as Dubai or Sharjah. 'There's a lot of humidity, and this essentially mitigates that by having a lot more air flow,' she says. 'Another aspect of this kit of parts is a fan that is positioned across from an evaporative cooling pad and so this cools the space down without the use of air conditioning.' Blueberry plants are displayed on a rammed-earth platform that, this time, rises to knee height. The display is as much a homage to the fruit that inspired the research for the project as it is an example of how platforms can be used to mitigate the heat of the ground. 'Essentially, it shows how [the platform] could be used as geothermal cooling for the greenhouse itself,' Aboualam says. 'With that assembly, you could essentially combine geothermal cooling and a green shade net which cools down the space significantly.' Then comes an assembly that incorporates a recognisable architectural element from the Gulf, and which has long been used to naturally cool spaces: the barjeel, or wind tower. In the context of the greenhouse, the barjeel is much simpler, featuring angled panels that promote airflow. The structure feeds air towards the tomatoes growing in between corrugated glass fibre panels, which also help keep things cool. The fact they are green is also not a mere aesthetic choice. 'The green shade net and the green fibreglass helps reflect a lot of the harmful rays of the sun that can affect the crops,' Aboualam says. The centre of the exhibition is a gathering space that offers insight into the research behind the project. Maps, illustrations and video elements display the field work and build experimentations that informed the work. 'The gathering table mimics the way the research team always gathered around a table to not just eat, but also work,' Aboualam says. 'This invites visitors to come with us on the journey.' One video highlights the archival research that Aboualam and her team carried out in order to understand the overlap between architecture and food production in UAE history. It shows maps dating back to the turn of the 20th century of palm trees growing along the coast of the Trucial States. An illustration of Dibba Fort shows how its watchtowers were built to protect orange groves in Fujairah. There are blueprints from the UAE National Library and Archives that show the inflated greenhouses in Saadiyat, as well as how evaporative cooling techniques were used to lower their temperatures. A map of the UAE shows the 155 sites that Aboualam and her team visited to document agricultural techniques. A second video shows how the 'kits-of-parts' can be arranged in a program that tests their efficacy in various assemblies and contexts. Walls, floors, shades, roofs and material can be organised in different permutations and shapes, ranging from rectangles and squares to arches, each with a unique set of advantages. 'We took all of the knowledge and all of the kits and then fed them in the digital tool, which was developed by Holesum Studio,' Aboualam says. 'It's a digital tool that uses thermal modelling programs, but also architectural programs. 'You put the kits together in different combinations and then assign a location in the UAE. It draws from airport data to tell you the predicted temperatures, how much electricity and water you need to operate the greenhouse.' The final aspect of Pressure Cooker shows an enclosed storage and office space that has been walled using porous polycarbonate panels. The walls feature vertical channels that can be filled with running water, cooling the space within. A video of greenhouses from across the UAE is projected on to one of the walls, but the structure itself offers ideas into how greenhouses can be used in more domestic contexts. 'Hopefully we can take some of these kits and integrate them within a neighbourhood in the UAE,' Aboualam says. 'It can be in someone's backyard, in a school park or within a compound.' While Pressure Cooker positions these greenhouse kits in a UAE context, the design's potential is not limited to within the country's borders. The project prompts new ways of thinking about food sustainability in the face of rising global temperatures. This is one conversation that Aboualam hopes Pressure Cooker sparks during the biennale, which runs from May 10 to November 23. There is a poetic element in bringing a revamped greenhouse back to the country that is credited with its invention, and Aboualam hopes that the kit further democratises the technology and promote self-sufficiency. One clue to that aim lies in the title of the exhibition itself. 'In a pressure cooker, you essentially put ingredients together and it gives you another outcome. That's how the project was conceived,' Aboualam says. 'The goal is that it's approachable enough so people that don't have that much expertise can build these structures and grow their own food.'
The National
08-05-2025
- General
- The National
UAE pavilion reimagines greenhouses for a hotter, hungrier world at Venice Biennale
At this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, the National Pavilion UAE turns its focus to food security, exploring how architecture can support agriculture in a changing climate. And it all began with a modest box of blueberries. One day, Emirati architect Azza Aboualam brought home groceries and her mother, tasting the blueberries, asked where they were from. To her surprise, they had been grown in the UAE. Blueberries thrive in cool and temperate weather – making their presence in the UAE's arid desert intriguing. 'Where do the desert blueberries come from?' says Aboualam, curator of this year's National Pavilion UAE. 'The question instigated the entire project.' Greenhouses were, of course, the answer – but the discovery prompted Aboualam to rethink how they are built in the UAE and explore the deeper 'back-and-forth relationship between architecture and plants'. Greenhouses date back to ancient Rome, where Emperor Tiberius used simple structures to grow cucumbers year-round. Modern variations emerged in the 17th century, gradually evolving through advances in glassmaking and heating. Today, greenhouses are a central component of agriculture around the world. However, they are still very much a European design, and even the greenhouses found in the UAE have been retrofitted and modified for the local context. In short, the technology was never considered from the ground-up for arid environments. Aboualam sought to revamp the greenhouse specifically for the UAE climate. Working with her team at Holesum Studio – a practice based between Sharjah and New York that she cofounded – she developed a series of modular greenhouse assemblies or 'kits-of-parts'. Each kit contains the essential components to create a greenhouse – roof, wall, floor, tools and materials – designed to adapt to different crops, climates and site conditions. The exhibition, Pressure Cooker, presents several assemblies as examples. It transforms the National Pavilion UAE venue into a controlled-environment agricultural site. The first of the greenhouses has a broken arched roof that facilitates airflow. Basil grows in pots set on rammed-earth platforms, raised just above ankle height to shield them from the ground's heat. Tomato shrubs hang from steel pipes, closer to the arched roof. 'The vertical arch and the way it's broken, it can be fitted with panels that open and close when the seasons shift from extremes,' Aboualam says. 'You can open it up let out heat and hot air, and then in the spring it would do the opposite.' This kind of assembly, Aboualam adds, works best in urban areas closer to the coast, such as Dubai or Sharjah. 'There's a lot of humidity, and this essentially mitigates that by having a lot more air flow,' she says. 'Another aspect of this kit of parts is a fan that is positioned across from an evaporative cooling pad and so this cools the space down without the use of air conditioning.' Blueberry plants are displayed on a rammed-earth platform that, this time, rises to knee height. The display is as much a homage to the fruit that inspired the research for the project as it is an example of how platforms can be used to mitigate the heat of the ground. 'Essentially, it shows how [the platform] could be used as geothermal cooling for the greenhouse itself,' Aboualam says. 'With that assembly, you could essentially combine geothermal cooling and a green shade net which cools down the space significantly.' Then comes an assembly that incorporates a recognisable architectural element from the Gulf, and which has long been used to naturally cool spaces: the barjeel, or wind tower. In the context of the greenhouse, the barjeel is much simpler, featuring angled panels that promote airflow. The structure feeds air towards the tomatoes growing in between corrugated glass fibre panels, which also help keep things cool. The fact they are green is also not a mere aesthetic choice. 'The green shade net and the green fibreglass helps reflect a lot of the harmful rays of the sun that can affect the crops,' Aboualam says. The centre of the exhibition is a gathering space that offers insight into the research behind the project. Maps, illustrations and video elements display the field work and build experimentations that informed the work. 'The gathering table mimics the way the research team always gathered around a table to not just eat, but also work,' Aboualam says. 'This invites visitors to come with us on the journey.' One video highlights the archival research that Aboualam and her team carried out in order to understand the overlap between architecture and food production in UAE history. It shows maps dating back to the turn of the 20th century of palm trees growing along the coast of the Trucial States. An illustration of Dibba Fort shows how its watchtowers were built to protect orange groves in Fujairah. There are blueprints from the UAE National Library and Archives that show the inflated greenhouses in Saadiyat, as well as how evaporative cooling techniques were used to lower their temperatures. A map of the UAE shows the 155 sites that Aboualam and her team visited to document agricultural techniques. A second video shows how the 'kits-of-parts' can be arranged in a program that tests their efficacy in various assemblies and contexts. Walls, floors, shades, roofs and material can be organised in different permutations and shapes, ranging from rectangles and squares to arches, each with a unique set of advantages. 'We took all of the knowledge and all of the kits and then fed them in the digital tool, which was developed by Holesum Studio,' Aboualam says. 'It's a digital tool that uses thermal modelling programs, but also architectural programs. 'You put the kits together in different combinations and then assign a location in the UAE. It draws from airport data to tell you the predicted temperatures, how much electricity and water you need to operate the greenhouse.' The final aspect of Pressure Cooker shows an enclosed storage and office space that has been walled using porous polycarbonate panels. The walls feature vertical channels that can be filled with running water, cooling the space within. A video of greenhouses from across the UAE is projected on to one of the walls, but the structure itself offers ideas into how greenhouses can be used in more domestic contexts. 'Hopefully we can take some of these kits and integrate them within a neighbourhood in the UAE,' Aboualam says. 'It can be in someone's backyard, in a school park or within a compound.' While Pressure Cooker positions these greenhouse kits in a UAE context, the design's potential is not limited to within the country's borders. The project prompts new ways of thinking about food sustainability in the face of rising global temperatures. This is one conversation that Aboualam hopes Pressure Cooker sparks during the biennale, which runs from May 10 to November 23. There is a poetic element in bringing a revamped greenhouse back to the country that is credited with its invention, and Aboualam hopes that the kit further democratises the technology and promote self-sufficiency. One clue to that aim lies in the title of the exhibition itself. 'In a pressure cooker, you essentially put ingredients together and it gives you another outcome. That's how the project was conceived,' Aboualam says. 'The goal is that it's approachable enough so people that don't have that much expertise can build these structures and grow their own food.'
