Among the participating countries at this year’s International Architecture Exhibition – the architectural biennale in Venice – is Bahrain, returning to the exhibition for the eighth time since 2010. This year’s exhibition, “Sweating Assets,” was co-curated by young Bahraini architects and researchers Maryam Aljomairi and Latifa Alkhayat, who is also a co-founder of the U.S.-based startup Harness the Heat. The pavilion was designed under the biennale’s theme “The Laboratory of the Future.” Developed by Lesley Lokko, a Ghanaian Scottish architect and educator and the Architecture Biennale’s first curator of African descent, the prompt encourages architects, engineers, designers, and other participants to mobilize “imagination, deep research, and a sense of discovery” as a way to decolonize architecture and explore and shape different pathways for the future.

The Bahraini pavilion explores the paradox of the necessity of air conditioning in the country’s humid climate and its destructive effects on the environment. The curators’ approach to conceptualizing the pavilion centered around collaboration, adaptation, reuse, and nostalgia, investigating the relationship of human comfort to air conditioning systems and the environment. The pavilion consists of a landscape installation and cooling system and is complemented by a film, photographs, music, and a publication. In exploring the effects of cooling systems regionally and globally, “Sweating Assets” considers the heavy reliance on air conditioning systems in Bahrain’s hot and humid climate while at the same time recognizes the proportionately high yield of water byproducts – the condensation produced by the cooling systems. With a recent study finding that the populations of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar could be at significant risk of life-threatening heat exposure under rising global temperatures, the pavilion imagines “an adaptive approach to resource management” that harnesses existing technologies and systems.

AGSIW spoke to curators Maryam and Latifa to learn about their approach to designing a climate-focused architectural pavilion and possible architectural solutions to air conditioning overuse and waste.

AGSIW: Tell us about your curatorial background.

Latifa: I started my career in architecture with an undergraduate degree from the University of Bath. After working in architectural practice in the United Kingdom, I came to the United States to do my master’s degree. My focus so far has been purely on architecture, specifically looking at material investigations as well as larger infrastructure systems. As you can tell by now, it has not really been much curation – it’s been more design – so this was definitely a new endeavor for us. I think it’s a natural thing as an architect to work as a curator because it involves many different entities. It was definitely a learning experience, but it also felt natural in some ways because we were involved with all the details while managing the overall picture, too.

Maryam: My background is also in architecture. I studied at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE. Then I worked in Bahrain and New York practicing architecture. I did my master’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and now I’m pursuing my doctoral studies at Harvard, all within the scope of architecture. My main research focus also has to do with material investigations, so I have had a very similar path as Latifa. Doing the biennale was definitely a new thing for us. We managed over 20 people and executed the project from start to finish. This coincided with our ongoing studies at the university, so it was certainly a challenge juggling many things at once. In many ways, it felt like another university project, although much larger in scale, requiring us to navigate the intricacies of managing a larger team and coordinating with numerous contributors across different time zones. Despite the challenges, it was an enriching experience that we’ve enjoyed thoroughly.

AGSIW: How did both of you, with architecture and research backgrounds, approach conceptualizing an experience for visitors under the pavilion’s theme?

Latifa: The theme proposed by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities – water scarcity – is a very open-ended one, so I think it’s tempting to look at Bahrain’s history and the history of its water springs. It’s a very nostalgic past view on the springs because they’re depleted, and a lot of collective memory is concentrated around these springs. So, we looked at what systems exist already. I think a big question and curious phenomenon is that we have arid land and a humid atmosphere, and it just felt kind of ironic. Bahrain being an island, and a really hot one, means that there’s a lot of humidity. So, in making something accessible for an audience, we designed the exhibition to be quite atmospheric and sensory. The location in Venice, a hot and humid place in the summer, helped us a lot.

Our exhibition has this cold, condensing volume, an air conditioning system that is emblematic of those used in the cooled buildings we have in Bahrain and the region. That volume is something that people gravitate toward in hot and humid Venice. The volume is constantly releasing water that gets distributed onto the landscape we designed, which is scaled based on our research and analysis of where you get the most condensate reserves. We really wanted people to encounter a curious installation and landscape condition and then be intrigued to find out more about it.

AGSIW: What other installations or elements does the pavilion contain?

Latifa: To accompany the physical installation, we have a film created by Saleh Jamsheer that encapsulates the tone of the exhibition, which is quite ambivalent about these air conditioning systems: They are detrimental to the environment, but at the same time, they are our survival mechanism in the hot summer months, and they produce a byproduct of water that we currently don’t use. So, it’s not so optimistic but not so ominous – it’s kind of in the middle. We have music as well, by Vijay Rajkumar, which really helped create this atmosphere in the space.

In the publication, we cover both the extremely technical aspects of water quality and history in Bahrain in general but also look at mythology – Nasser Alzayani talks about mythology historically and water springs in ancient civilizations in Bahrain. Then, Marwa Alkoheji also adopted an anthropological lens, looking at the culture of air conditioning, how these systems have expanded over time, and how we need to rethink their use. In building the narrative, it was nice to have local researchers and local voices because they know what the real issue is. It’s easy to talk about it scientifically and technically in terms of numbers, but these people know the lived experience of being in Bahrain and understand why we need those systems.

Maryam: We made sure to involve many contributors from various backgrounds. We have a hydrogeologist, an engineer, a marine biologist who has a very good understanding of the ecology of Bahrain, an anthropologist, designers, and architects who worked together. We’re really interested in getting other people’s voices and perspectives in Bahrain and the Gulf to have a more holistic approach to this issue. That’s something you can find apparent within the exhibition book through the contributions and essays.

AGSIW: What are some of the themes that characterize the exhibition or the keywords around which you designed the pavilion?

Latifa: I think a big one is climate, and not just climate in a narrow sense but how people have responded to it historically. I also think it’s a theme of acceptance of Bahrain’s modernist history. Yes, air conditioning systems were introduced because of oil camps – because expatriates didn’t want to move to a very hot place, and they needed their survival mechanism, air conditioning. So, these air conditioners were introduced, and then as affluence grew in the region – or in Bahrain, anyway – the use of air conditioning systems expanded, and that’s when people moved away from collective means of comfort, such as the springs, and got individual air conditioning units in their homes.

Maryam: When you talk about the climate crisis in relation to air conditioning, especially from the Western perspective, there’s this immediate reaction of rejecting and vilifying these systems. It’s important to acknowledge the unique context of our climate, in the Gulf, which is characterized by extreme conditions that make living without air conditioning systems very difficult. Air conditioning has greatly improved the quality of life and created new opportunities for social and economic development. While there is a realization that, yes, these systems are detrimental, we should confront the reality that, at present, their use is absolutely necessary; however, they must be operated mindfully. Currently, the condensate byproduct is not used. So, how can we optimize these systems to offset some of their negative consequences with what’s already there? That’s what we’re trying to do with this exhibition.

AGSIW: Aside from the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities’ theme of water scarcity, how did you also tie the pavilion into the biennale’s broader theme of “The Laboratory of the Future”?

Maryam: When you think about a laboratory, it’s a set of experiments or grounds for testing, our whole process, as well as our entire exhibition, is an experiment. What’s in the space will keep changing corresponding to the environment, the temperature, and the humidity around it for the six-month duration of the exhibition. So, we’re also trying to observe the relationship between the water condensate that’s being generated from the volume as well as the microecology that’s growing. Within two weeks of installing the exhibition, after the water started to form and accumulate, the plants around it started to bloom and that started to attract life. So, pigeons came in that weren’t there prior to the water generation. They were picking on the plants and drinking from the water. It will be really interesting to see how the exhibition space will unfold over the next six months as the temperature and the entire system start to fluctuate.

Also, when you talk about the laboratory of the future, the first inkling of how to address this topic or issue is always to try to create new technologies or novel systems – basically starting and developing things from scratch. Our proposal highlights something that is very valuable and needed but often overlooked: working with what already exists and trying to maximize its offerings.

Latifa: I think it’s important to recognize that laboratories in the future should not operate in isolation. We could look at the purely technical aspects of this, but people’s habits, wants, and cultures around comfort have a big influence as well. So, considering these things is extremely important when we look at laboratories.

AGSIW: What’s the meaning behind the exhibition’s title, “Sweating Assets”?

Latifa: It’s a layered title. For one, it’s a term used in managing financial assets. For example, the gig economy operates by sweating assets – you have a car that you use for Uber, for example, so there, you’re maximizing its value. Same with Airbnb. But in our case, we apply it to building systems that already exist. This leads to the second meaning, which is physically sweating moisture to make buildings comfortable. Buildings or enclosures “sweat,” or condense water, in two different ways. The first is when hot and humid air is drawn into buildings and cooled. The second is when hot air comes into contact with the cold coils that cool it. This happens everywhere in the world, but in Bahrain, because it’s so humid, the quantities produced are immense. So, the metaphorical meaning of “Sweating Assets” is using existing systems, because right now the water that gets generated by dehumidifying air all goes down the drain. It’s not collected.

AGSIW: Do you feel like you’re telling both a very local, Bahraini story as well as, in some ways, a global story?

Maryam: It’s a phenomenon that exists in all climates that are very similar to ours, and the propositions that we have are very simple. It’s not something that’s costly; it’s just a matter of policy changes and making sure that everybody takes responsibility, starting at the household level. So, our propositions can be applicable to any country with a very similar climate. The issue is just very drastic in Bahrain and the Gulf because of the amount of water that’s being generated and because we use cooling systems practically all year round.

Latifa: Also, I wouldn’t limit this approach to purely air conditioning systems. I think there are so many inefficiencies and wasteful practices across many industries, for example, the oil industry. I would say that it’s important, as Maryam mentioned, rather than constantly looking to use more resources to create more novel technologies, to look at what’s there and simply manage those loose ends so that every drop is collected in other industries as well.

It’s also about looking at how we used to live but not necessarily to move back to that. For example, architecturally, we used to have way more transition spaces. However, right now in Bahrain, in most homes or buildings, you leave the front door and you’re immediately baked in the sun, whereas previously there were many more shading mechanisms and transition zones. I think we need to think about these gradient spaces or thermal gradients much more. This is where the cultural aspect is really important. Another phenomenon, which happens not just in the Gulf but also in places like Singapore, is when offices are cooled to the point that people start wearing sweaters indoors. In the summers, we can’t help but rely on air conditioning, but there are shorter seasons when we can take a step back and rethink our mechanisms of comfort.