BAHRAIN is set to participate in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, to be held in Venice, Italy next month.
After a pre-opening ceremony on May 18, the exhibition will remain open to the general public from May 20 until November 26 this year.
The event, which will be held under the theme ‘The Laboratory of the Future’, is being curated by architect, academic and best-selling novelist Lesley Lokko.
Bahrain’s participation in the event, also known as the Biennale Architettura 2023, revolves around the possibility of benefiting from cooling and air conditioning systems in innovative and creative ways.
The exhibition will be curated by Mariam Al Jumairi and Latifa Al Khayyat, whose proposal won a competition that was open to the public last year.
Ms Al Jumairi and Ms Al Khayyat’s proposal was selected from about 30 others, with curators, architects, artists, historians, designers, theorists and scientists being encouraged to step forward to represent the kingdom and make a splash at one of the most prestigious cultural exhibitions in the world.
Ms Al Jumairi is an architect and PhD student at Harvard University and holds an MA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ms Al Khayyat is a master’s student at MIT and has a degree in architecture from the University of Bath in the UK.
The pavilion will shed light on challenges associated with the lack of fresh water in Bahrain, by exploring the severe weather conditions in the kingdom, represented by heat and high humidity.
Last September, a Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (Baca) spokesperson said prior to the selection that Bahrain is one of the 10 poorest countries in terms of water resources per inhabitant with 0.116 m3/year of total renewable water resources, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and sweet water scarcity is one of the biggest challenges to resolve.
The exhibition is based on research on closed environments in Bahrain which need advanced cooling systems, which during hot and humid months results in high levels of water condensation.
Condensation from infrastructures such as hotels, malls and data centres are enough to create large deposits of water reservoirs which hold immense potentials, but are taken for granted and simply fed into wastewater streams.
The ‘Sweating Assets’ pavilion thus looks at the possibility of collecting the condensed water, using it in urban development opportunities and taking care of the natural environment in light of scarcity of water resources.
The pavilion advocates for an adaptive approach to resource management by working with existing systems to their best capacities rather than starting anew.
The exhibition will consist of a miniature environment that reflects the complex relationship between the industry represented by mechanical air conditioning systems, the environment, humans and water consumption.
Last week, Baca launched a website to promote its participation in the Biennale, showing details of Bahrain’s participation.
The website will be periodically updated with new information, and members of the public can visit it at www.sweatingassets.bh.
nader@gdnmedia.bh
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