United Arab Emirates 2025

Title: Pressure Cooker
Commissioner: Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation
Curator/Exhibitor: Azza Aboualam

Pressure Cooker re-envisions how food production, architectural form, and new conceptions of space can overlap, informing applications and solutions for arid climates, asking: Using the UAE as a case study, how can architecture be mobilized toward greater food security?

Focusing on sustainable solutions for arid environments, Pressure Cooker addresses food security challenges exacerbated by climate change. The exhibition reimagines the greenhouse for arid climates, offering new perspectives on food security, an issue of growing urgency both regionally and globally for which adaptable practices are needed.

Through archival research, fieldwork, and experiments with greenhouse designs, Pressure Cooker proposes adaptable, innovative solutions for sustainable food production at both individual and communal levels.