The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale is set to feature a large-scale prototype structure by the UAE’s National Pavilion. The cement is created from recycled, industrial-waste brine derived from the UAE’s salt flats, known as sabkha, which account for more than 5 per cent of the country’s land mass.
The structure is 2.7 meters tall and seven by five meters wide and features a walkable interior space. It is formed from up to 3,000 modules made of an MgO-based cement designed by the curators Wael Al-Awar and Kenichi Teramoto in a collaborative research process. It will be exhibited as part of architects Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto’s Wetland, which looks at how salt compounds in the UAE’s salt flats can be used as renewable building materials.
To develop the chemical formula of the cement, the curators worked with specialist teams at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Amber Lab, the American University of Sharjah’s department of biology, chemistry and environmental sciences, and the University of Tokyo’s Obuchi Lab and Sato Lab.
The curators aims to find a solution to the environmental problems brought on by the manufacture of concrete. The production of cement has a high environmental impact, releasing a substantial amount of carbon dioxide into the air and accounting for 8 per cent of all greenhouse emissions. In contrast, sabkha-based building materials, such as the cement with which Teramoto and Al Awar are experimenting, absorb carbon dioxide as they cure.
The structure will be exhibited at the National Pavilion against a backdrop of three large photographs taken by artist Farah Al Qasimi. The scenic photographs each measure three metres high and more than four metres wide. They show transmission towers standing tall above the textured salt flats, exploring the tension between urbanisation and nature in the UAE’s sabkha.
Laila Binbrek, co-ordinating director of the National Pavilion, said Wetland will mark the UAE’s 10th participation in the Venice Biennale, set against the context of the UAE’s 50th national anniversary. “The exhibition presents a truly groundbreaking potential solution to the global issue of climate change, through a project that is rooted in our local stories, environment and society – reflecting the National Pavilion UAE’s commitment to tell the UAE’s untold stories while facilitating global dialogue,” Binbrek said.
The exhibition will also accompanied by a three-minute soundtrack capturing the ecological story of the sabkhas, the desalination process that creates brine and the exhibition’s research journey.