Archicture without architects

Curated by Bahrainian architects and academics Moura Al-Sayeh and Dr Fuad Al-Ansari, the pavilion focuses on an exploration of the country's cultural relationship with the sea.

It features three fisherman's huts which have been transported from their original sites and is the first official pavilion from a gulf state at the architecture biennale.

The exhibition's concept, design and production were realised in collaboration with lapa at the EPFL, Lausanne, and its director, former Herzog & de Meuron partner Harry Gugger.

"It was our ambition to create a pleasant and intriguing place where people would naturally want to hang out and rest and where they eventually would effortlessly get informed about a fundamental topic of Bahrain's culture and heritage, the crucial but vulnerable relationship with the sea," said Gugger.

"In that sense the space in the Arsenale is used as a natural backdrop for the human artefacts, the sea shacks which allow their owners to contemplate an immediate relationship with the sea. Having been dismantled in Bahrain and resurrected at the Arsenale in the exact same way, the shacks talk of another interesting topic, architecture without Architects."

Source: http://www.bdonline.co.uk