Azza Aboualam has been appointed curator of the United Arab Emirates Pavilion for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, making her the first Emirati woman to hold this position.
A professor at Zayed University, Aboualam was selected following an open call to academics and artists. She explained that her proposal had been carefully crafted to reflect the UAE’s knowledge and material culture. She hinted that the pavilion might explore “local food production methods and their links to architecture and the environment.”
Aboualam contributed as a researcher to Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai (2020) and Building Sharjah (2021). She is also the co-founder of Holesum Studio, based in Sharjah and New York, which she established in 2021 with her fellow Yale University graduates, Dimitri Brand and James Coleman.