How will we live together? Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis, Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT and curator of the upcoming architecture edition of the Venice Biennale, posed this intriguing question before the Covid-19 pandemic even began. As the theme of the 2021 Biennale, the question calls for participating countries and curators to reflect on the future of collective living at one of the world’s most significant forums for architecture and the built environment.
Even before the crisis, global platforms like the Venice Biennale, the World Economic Forum and Expo 2020 Dubai had a vital role to play in convening ideas and creating discussions around sustainability, urban development and climate change. Now, after a year of profound change, this call for long-term solutions is more relevant than ever.
As architects, we feel it is our responsibility to cast a critical eye on our industry’s significant contribution to the climate crisis and identify areas where we can mitigate its impact through new thinking. This is why we chose to respond to the National Pavilion UAE’s open call for projects to represent the country on the Venice Biennale’s important platform. Our project, Wetland, responds to Mr Sarkis’s question by thinking not just about communities, but also humanity’s relationship with our planet.
In early 2020, emissions fell to record lows due to industrial restrictions
In the first half of 2020, global carbon dioxide emissions fell by a record-breaking 1550 million metric tonnes due to restrictions on transport and industrial activity. We should celebrate this, but if the underlying systems and issues remain unchanged, the number will represent a relatively small and temporary blip on the charts. The planet is still heading for a temperature rise of more than three degrees this century. By the end of 2020, some of the world’s most polluting industries, including construction, were already back to normal.
We have always been conscious of the local environment in the projects that we’ve created for our design studio, waiwai, which is based in Dubai. We aim to minimise energy use, incorporate indigenous flora and make the most of natural resources. However, with just 100 companies said to be responsible for 71 per cent of all global emissions since 1988, it has become clearer than ever that the environmental impact of full-scale industrial activity vastly outweighs individual actions.
Venice is a city greatly endangered by rising sea levels and mass tourism. Reuters
Over the past two years, through our project for the National Pavilion UAE, we have been able to tackle a global issue from a local perspective by focusing on the world’s two most highly-consumed materials: water and concrete.
Producing cement – a vital ingredient in concrete – accounts for eight per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions and should be a matter of urgent concern across the environmental, architecture and construction industries.
Here in the Arabian Gulf, water is a scarce resource. The vast majority of potable water comes from desalination plants, which support habitation in our region but also produce a significant amount of brine, highly-saturated saltwater that goes back into the ocean, drastically raising marine salinity levels.
We saw brine not as a waste product, but as a resource in abundance. Our project proposes a potential method to recycle it into a green, MgO-based alternative cement that would match traditional Portland brands for strength, durability and accessibility.
Learning from natural landscapes is one of our fundamental principles. In partnership with NYU Abu Dhabi, the American University of Sharjah and the University of Tokyo, we’ve created an experimental prototype inspired by crystalised salts and minerals found in the UAE’s salt flats, or sabkhas, unique and complex natural phenomena tentatively listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Our experience shows us that to respond to climate change we must turn to the natural world for answers. One square metre of sabkha can sequester more carbon than one of rainforest, and yet our understanding of them is still in its early stages. In addition to our experiments, the National Pavilion UAE has commissioned a publication authored by urbanists Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib, which contains extensive research into the sabkhas’ essential ecological and cultural value for the Emirates.
The 2021 Venice Biennale has asked us a simple question with complex answers. For us, living together sustainably means finding solutions that balance the modern world’s need for an immense amount of construction and manufacturing, with the need to preserve our natural environment.
Rethinking how we engage with the assets of the natural world – such as our idea to transform waste brine into a building material – is fundamental. We must ensure that as our sector emerges from the pandemic, it is not just a return to the “old normal”, but to long-lasting systemic and behavioural change that sets us on a path to renewed harmony with our natural world. This is how we intend to answer the Biennale’s question: how will we live together?
Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto, founders of Dubai-based architects waiwai, are curating the National Pavilion UAE at the Venice Biennale
AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
£10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
£100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
£250m to train new AI models
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
Fujairah is a crucial hub for fuel storage and is just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond.
The strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction. Almost a fifth of oil consumed across the world passes through the strait.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, a move that would risk inviting geopolitical and economic turmoil.
Last month, Iran issued a new warning that it would block the strait, if it was prevented from using the waterway following a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major Iranian oil importers.
You can’t yet talk about investing or borrowing, but introduce a “classic” money bank and start putting gifts and allowances away. When the child wants a specific toy, have them save for it and help them track their progress.
Early childhood (six - eight years)
Replace the money bank with three jars labelled ‘saving’, ‘spending’ and ‘sharing’. Have the child divide their allowance into the three jars each week and explain their choices in splitting their pocket money. A guide could be 25 per cent saving, 50 per cent spending, 25 per cent for charity and gift-giving.
Middle childhood (nine - 11 years)
Open a bank savings account and help your child establish a budget and set a savings goal. Introduce the notion of ‘paying yourself first’ by putting away savings as soon as your allowance is paid.
Young teens (12 - 14 years)
Change your child’s allowance from weekly to monthly and help them pinpoint long-range goals such as a trip, so they can start longer-term saving and find new ways to increase their saving.
Teenage (15 - 18 years)
Discuss mutual expectations about university costs and identify what they can help fund and set goals. Don’t pay for everything, so they can experience the pride of contributing.
Young adulthood (19 - 22 years)
Discuss post-graduation plans and future life goals, quantify expenses such as first apartment, work wardrobe, holidays and help them continue to save towards these goals.
* JP Morgan Private Bank
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
