Wael Alawar and Kenichi Teramoto of ibda design, who have won the open call for the next UAE representation at the Venice Biennale for architecture. Image National Pavilion UAE - La Biennale di Venezia
Wael Alawar and Kenichi Teramoto of ibda design, who have won the open call for the next UAE representation at the Venice Biennale for architecture. Image National Pavilion UAE - La Biennale di Venezia
Wael Alawar and Kenichi Teramoto of ibda design, who have won the open call for the next UAE representation at the Venice Biennale for architecture. Image National Pavilion UAE - La Biennale di Venezia
Wael Alawar and Kenichi Teramoto of ibda design, who have won the open call for the next UAE representation at the Venice Biennale for architecture. Image National Pavilion UAE - La Biennale di Venezi

Dubai-based Ibda design to represent UAE at next Venice Biennale


Melissa Gronlund
  • English
  • Arabic

Ibda design, a Dubai-based architectural studio that has recently built a number of cultural sites in the Gulf, will represent the UAE at the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Ibda design comprise Wael Al Awar, a Lebanese architect, and Kenichi Taramoto, from Japan. They are behind the new Jameel Arts Centre, on Dubai Creek, as well as Hai d3, a pavilion at the Dubai Design District that hosts performances and other events.

In a second commission for the Saudi foundation Art Jameel, they are also designing the upcoming Hayy: Creative Hub, in Jeddah, which is due to open in 2020. Ibda's buildings have won several awards, and the pair have developed a distinctive, refined aesthetic born of their unique backgrounds. As they like to say, between Lebanese and Japanese, they have no shared language, except for that of architecture.

This is the fourth year the UAE has participated in the architecture pavilion, and the first time the National Pavilion UAE organisation has put out an open call for submissions. The pavilion is commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and is regarded a particular entity in the UAE landscape, being the only institution to speak for the country nationally. Every exhibition returns to the UAE and travels to cultural institutions across the emirates.

The view of Jameel Arts Centre from Dubai Creek
The view of Jameel Arts Centre from Dubai Creek

Ibda’s proposal calls for a responsiveness to the local environment, using sea salt as a naturally-occurring building material. Their previous projects have also been sensitive to their surroundings. The Jameel Arts Centre, a collection of small buildings in a light, reflective cladding, hews closer to the grey waters of Dubai Creek beyond it, rather than the sand-coloured building of the Versace Hotel that overlook the site.

“We are continually inspired by natural phenomena and the ways in which architects can adapt organic materials to create sustainable designs,” the pair said in a statement. “Salt is a geologically fascinating substance as well as one of the UAE’s most abundant natural resources, and through our exhibition we’ll explore its potential as an environmentally-friendly building material.”

The Venice Biennale for architecture runs from May to November 2020. The main exhibition, How Will We Live Together?, is curated by the Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis, who will use the forum to explore the potential for cross-community engagement in a time when social and economic division is plaguing many parts of the world.

England squads for Test and T20 series against New Zealand

Test squad: Joe Root (capt), Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Dominic Sibley, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes

T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Pat Brown, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, James Vince

First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus 

Classification of skills

A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation. 

A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.

The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000. 

Ferrari 12Cilindri specs

Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

Power: 819hp

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BMW M5 specs

Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor

Power: 727hp

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Transmission: 8-speed auto

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Dhadak 2

Director: Shazia Iqbal

Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri 

Rating: 1/5

The Settlers

Director: Louis Theroux

Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz

Rating: 5/5

Mobile phone packages comparison
Brief scores:

Everton 0

Leicester City 1

Vardy 58'

Brief scoreline:

Manchester United 1

Mata 11'

Chelsea 1

Alonso 43'

Scoreline

Ireland 16 (Tries: Stockdale Cons: Sexton Pens: Sexton 3)

New Zealand 9 (Pens: Barrett 2 Drop Goal: Barrett)

Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates

Adele: The Stories Behind The Songs
Caroline Sullivan
Carlton Books

if you go

The flights

Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return. 

The trek

Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required. 

Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions

There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.

1 Going Dark

A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.

2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers

A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.

3. Fake Destinations

Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.

4. Rebranded Barrels

Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.

* Bloomberg

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Name: Xpanceo

Started: 2018

Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov

Based: Dubai, UAE

Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality

Funding: $40 million

Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)

The specs: 2018 Range Rover Velar R-Dynamic HSE

Price, base / as tested: Dh263,235 / Dh420,000

Engine: 3.0-litre supercharged V6

Power 375hp @ 6,500rpm

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Fuel consumption, combined: 9.4L / 100kms

Results

4pm: Maiden (Dirt) Dh165,000 1,600m
Winner: Moshaher, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer).

4.35pm: Handicap (D) Dh165,000 2,200m
Winner: Heraldic, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

5.10pm: Maiden (Turf) Dh165,000 1,600m
Winner: Rua Augusta, Harry Bentley, Ahmad bin Harmash.

5.45pm: Handicap (D) Dh190,000 1,200m
Winner: Private’s Cove, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav.

6.20pm: Handicap (T) Dh190,000 1,600m
Winner: Azmaam, Jim Crowley, Musabah Al Muhairi.

6.55pm: Handicap (D) Dh190,000 1,400m
Winner: Bochart, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

7.30pm: Handicap (T) Dh190,000 2,000m
Winner: Rio Tigre, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav.

The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre

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ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Rating: 2/5
Squads

Australia: Finch (c), Agar, Behrendorff, Carey, Coulter-Nile, Lynn, McDermott, Maxwell, Short, Stanlake, Stoinis, Tye, Zampa

India: Kohli (c), Khaleel, Bumrah, Chahal, Dhawan, Shreyas, Karthik, Kuldeep, Bhuvneshwar, Pandey, Krunal, Pant, Rahul, Sundar, Umesh

Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.