Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2019: Rights of Future Generations
Under the banner “Rights of Future Generations,” the Sharjah Architecture Triennial opened in November 2019 with a procession of local mariners bearing a model of a traditional wooden dhow to an abandoned market, followed by a group of Sunni choristers chanting songs that accompany the hajj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca). Later that day, an Egyptian troupe staged part one of a performance exploring the legacy of the Suez Canal, the conduit through which the marine ecologies of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean co-mingled, changing both forever. The remainder was performed on the days that followed.
The message was clear: this inaugural edition of the first major international platform on architecture, urbanism and the environment situated in the Arabic-speaking world would be grounded in Sharjah’s position as a historical port of Indian Ocean trade, taking in parts of
