The inaugural Sharjah Architecture Triennial is the first major platform to invite dialogue on architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, North and East Africa, South and Southeast Asia.
Running from November 2019 until 8 February 2020, and curated by Adrian Lahoud, the Triennial – titled Rights of Future Generations – rethinks fundamental questions about architecture and its power to create and sustain alternative modes of existence. An opening weekend programme of performances, forums and summits is scheduled from 9 – 11 November.
Arising from the conviction that architecture can address climate change by emancipating itself from entrenched forms of hegemony and extractivism, Rights of Future Generations is an invitation to identify and question unspoken assumptions on which design has been based for so long. The Triennial posits one way of doing so is to pay attention to existing social struggles, including indigenous ones, against such paradigms. Crucially, such struggles often take place in territories that have found themselves at the frontline of climate change.
Curated by Adrian Lahoud, the Triennial sets out to rethink fundamental questions about architecture and places the relationship between generations at the heart of our struggle to avert the climate crisis. Both the opening programme and the participating projects demonstrate the diverse strands of enquiry within the theme and suggest multiple ways architecture can shape our co-existence with others against extractive modes of living.
Adrian Lahoud commented: “I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to shape the inaugural edition of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial and to find ways of supporting an emerging generation of architects, artists and scholars in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.”
