Architecture – magpie

7 May 2026

The Middle East’s best buildings?

10 November 2025

The inaugural RIBA Middle East Awards were handed out during Dubai Design Week. The qualifications are pretty generous – submissions had to have been completed between July 2020 and July 2024 by a qualified architect (not necessarily an RIBA architect) [ … ]

Plans and curators for the third Sharjah Architecture Triennial

4 July 2025

The Sharjah Architecture Triennial has named a heavyweight curator for its third edition and released a commendably lucid curatorial statement. The curator is Vyjayanthi Rao. She’s an anthropologist, writer, artist, and curator based between New York and Mumbai. Currently a [ … ]

Summer in Venice: a trip to the Architecture Biennial

26 May 2025

The Biennale Architettura is probably the hottest event in the architectural calendar. Big ideas and big ambitions, pavilions with national pride at stake, the beautiful and well-heeled in attendance (though it’s not as glitzy as the art biennale), big brand [ … ]

Under pressure: food security in Venice

8 February 2025

The Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates has outlined its plans for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale. Curated by Azza Aboualam, architect and Assistant Professor at Zayed University’s College of Arts and Creative Enterprises, it has the [ … ]

Azza Aboualam to exhibit for UAE at 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale

14 October 2024

The Emirati architect Azza Aboualam has been named as curator of the UAE’s participation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia by the National Pavilion UAE. Pleasingly, Aboualam was a Venice Intern at the National Pavilion [ … ]

Upcoming: 2024’s design and architecture festivals

7 February 2024

A calendar of events in and around the cultural life of magpie Click on the event name and its website will open in a new tab. You can look for specific events from the search bar at the top, or [ … ]

Modern heritage in Abu Dhabi: plaques on 60+ buildings

7 February 2024

There’s not much of the original Abu Dhabi to be seen in the city; the original pre-20th century fishing village was probably little more than a collection of barasti huts, maybe with a few more substantial coral- and stone-based buildings [ … ]

Gensler on living and working in the near future: buildings, spaces, and more

6 June 2023

Gensler might have begun life as a Californian interior design studio, but these days it’s a multifaceted built-environment behemoth, still big in its original sphere (it heads the 2023 Interior Design Top 100 Giants list) but now probably the largest architectural practice in [ … ]

Sharjah Architecture Triennial: dates and first participants for 2023

9 May 2023

Dates and an initial slate of participants have been announced for the second Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT); it will run from 11 November to 10 March 2024. Curator Tosin Oshinowo has previously unveiled its title and theme – The Beauty [ … ]

Living with aridity, and what we can learn from it

15 February 2023

The National Pavilion UAE has detailed its participation at the upcoming 18th Venice Biennale of Architecture. Curator Faysal Tabbarah has put together an exhibition with the title Aridly Abundant; it suggests that arid environments can be transformed into spaces of [ … ]