Saudi Arabia’s Pavilion at Venice Biennale Celebrates Its Clay Legacy

As the scent of lavender and Arabian aromas fills its rooms, Saudi Arabia’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2023 celebrates its material legacy with spaces occupied by 3D-printed clay columns and lights casting magical patterns on its surfaces.

‘Irth’, Arabic for ‘legacy’, is Saudi’s third participation at the biennale, which is currently hosting its 18th International Architecture Exhibition until November 26th, 2023. The exhibition was curated by Basma and Noura Bouzo, the co-founders of Saudi Design Week, and designed by Jeddah-based architect AlBara Saimaldahar.

Exploring the relationships we have with materials, the layered and sensorial pavilion offers a futuristic outlook by using one of the most fundamental building materials found in Saudi architecture: clay and earth. Irth employs them as both structural and cladding elements to evoke the country’s natural topographies.

Journeying through the pavilion, you pass underneath six arched gateways covered with wood panels from the inside and cladded with 3D-printed clay tiles externally. They evoke both a sense of heaviness and lightness, somewhat like desert dunes. Meanwhile, the rest of the pavilion compels visitors to address their individual viewpoints.

While the structure itself reflects vernacular methods reimagined with innovation, the displays provide an overview of the past, present and future of Saudi architecture. Addressing ongoing adaptations, with an air of nostalgia, the layout envisioned by Saimaldahar presents the essence of Saudi craftsmanship through immaculate artefacts.

At its conclusion, the Biennale’s sculpture will rest in the bottom of the Red Sea, as an artificial stimulant of marine ecosystems.

Photography Credit: Venice Documentation Project