In the fifth edition of Abwab this year, audiences will engage with the creative ideas of designers from the Eastern Provinces of Saudi Arabia, India and Lebanon who are tasked with redefining the experience of learning.
A snapshot of design activity in the region, Abwab responds to an evolving creative landscape and new blends of designers, offering a united platform for emerging design talent from across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to showcase their creative ideas.
Representing the Eastern Provinces of Saudi Arabia and supported by Ithra, boutique firm Azaz Architects will design a pavilion along the concept of restoration. Based between Riyadh and Madrid, the newly founded firm by architect Shahad Alazzaz has built a varied profile of architectural projects.
Exploring the dynamics of our memory, the team at Busride Design Studio will create a memory bank for the pavilion representing India. With a portfolio spanning over 150 Hospitality and Culture spaces, and a wide range of work across almost all kinds of built environments, Busride Studio's projects are guided by diversity and the active connection between research and practice, which they create in collaboration with their research arm, Busride Lab.
The Lebanese pavilion will be designed by T Sakhi Architects, a multidisciplinary design studio by Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi. The duo designs both permanent and transient social structures that draw from emotional and psychological spaces. Their work encompasses architecture, product design, art objects, installations and film. This year the Lebanese pavilion will see their interactive ‘Silent Echoes’ installation, designed to capture social interaction in the digital age.
Audiences will have the opportunity to enter the pavilions and interact in different ways with the structures. A celebration of learning, these pavilions are places to associate emotion with knowledge and leave an everlasting impact.
Translated as ‘doors’ in Arabic and an annually re-modelled showcase, Abwab's objective is to celebrate an element of the culture and environment represented by the selected designers using graphic, industrial, product, furniture, spatial design and architecture. Each pavilion will act as a gathering space for people to experience the making of a memory, and to explore the way information is shared and taught in the respective cultures.
N.B. - Images used in this article are from the previous editions of Abwab.