LIFESCAPES BEYOND BIGNESS
A wired mesh defines pavilion’s boundaries, supporting, at the same me, all the different media selected for the exhibition. It creates a core space, working as a palindrome on both accesses, and nesting the typological and sectorial researches developed by the curatorial team.
“The 2018 UAE National Pavilion provides an excursion into the more humane and under celebrated parts of UAE’s social and physical landscape. A sentimental one filled with vibrancy and vitality that challenges some of the large perceptions (e.g. exclusivity, speculative, insularity, and dividedness) pertaining to UAE’s recent architectural practice. The aim of this exhibition is to highlight the role of architecture and urban design in forming the choreography of people’s daily routines. It particularly investigates the role of quotidian landscapes in accommodating, enhancing, and facilitating the “everyday” social activities across different places in the UAE.” (Dr. Khaled Alawadi).
A large, and full-heigth wired mesh walks along pavilion’s perimetric surfaces, visually defining its boundaries. The idea is to represent, through the use of a partially transparent enclosing system, the idea of “bigness” as expressed in the title of the 2018 NPUAE.
Entering the pavilion, the visitor will mentally rebuild the idea/shape of a large ephemeral volume, rendered through two juxtaposed meshes. Pavilion’s shape is made by the physical layout of two shifted “C” shaped enclosures. The scheme creates two buffer zones, corresponding to the entrances.
The mesh is a metaphor, recalling pavilion’s theme, the representation of those stereotypes beyond which the curator’s attention is focused. The design, in order not to pursue a merely symbolic message, assigns a much more explicit functional role to the mesh: it will accommodate and support most of the content selected for the exhibition.
The mesh defines an enclosed environment, within which, in a central position, is placed a floating models’ mosaic. Models are hanging on a secondary structure, placed above the existing one. Summing up the two solutions, the mesh and the hanging mosaic, pavilion’s floor is freed from any obstruction, and visitors are able to decide their own path.
