This years Venice Architecture Biennale has as its theme The Laboratory of the Future. The laboratory part of the title suggests experimentation and radical rethinking.

The National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia shows a series of more traditional yet still alluring spaces with arches on either side of a rectangular central room that feels almost cave-like and prehistoric. Inside the dimly lit central space is just one object a hollow 3D-printed clay column from which light is projected on to the floor, walls and ceiling. The patterns are  inspired by undulating desert dunes and the vernacular architecture of Asir, a region in the south-west of the country that consists of coastal plains and high mountains.

This object will be relocated to the bottom of the Red Sea eventually, where they will create new habitats for marine life and leave a legacy for future generations.

It is in this long cavernous central space that one can also smell a fragrance created specifically for the pavilion. It was designed to capture elements of the culture, explains the assistant curator. We have frankincense, which was a core element of our trade routes, we have myrrh and we also have lavender. Its our way of introducing Saudi Arabia to the world. When we talk about architecture we always forget the unseen and focus on the visual.

The curators of the Saudi pavilion are keen to emphasize that the pavilion is a collaborative effort that seeks to finds common ground in its desire to improve the human condition and answer the challenges confronting our world. In practice, what thi...

Witness the interplay of earth, water, and straw to create in-fill walls for a hand-crafted timber frame structure. Stone, clay, bamboo and straw are combined to create beautifully finished walls.

Many hands come together, to gather stones, make adobes, mix cob, harvest bamboo to build natural walls that are durable and breathable.

Multiple methods of cob, adobe blocks and wattle & daub are combined to create a unique mi...