House of Artisans
Qasr Al Hosn Abu Dhabi (UAE)
Permanent exhibition 2021
In partnership with KDJ+T for the Department for Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi
Meet the Artisans of the United Arab Emirates!
This journey takes its guests, Emiratis, expats, and cultural tourists alike, onto a journey to the crafts and design of the UAE, that engages all senses and the mind.
Located at the heart of the UAE, at Qasr Al Hosn, next to the former palace and first building of Abu Dhabi, the Guests find the new House Of Artisans.
At the center of this exhibition, the guests will meet real traditional artisans that keep the old traditions alive at their workplace.
In three surrounding pavillions, the guests can explore the materials and processes used for Talli, Al Sadu, and Khoos and learn about the techniques in an interactive way.
The pavilions are surrounded by displays of modern-day Emirati designs and crafts that take the tradition's into the future.
A fifth pavilion is dedicated to the art of Gahwa, the traditional coffee making. Here Gahwa will be prepared, as a presentation, but also to be offered to the exhibition's guests throughout the space, sharing its beautiful smell and aromas adding to the sensual experience of this exhibition.
This pavilion has a little hidden kitchenette and a large automated curtain that can close the space off for presentations
In order to facilitate a variety of exciting and ambitious workshops we designed a flexible furniture system that can be configured towards many different arrangements.
The exhibition is embraced by two large wall installations. The 'Universe of Crafts' showcases products of traditional crafts while the juxtaposed 'Wall of Hands' is a video-installation that shows crafting hands, in motion.
Since we designed the complete guest-journey through the ground floor of the building we also transformed the entrance/exit area. Here hosts will welcome and inform the guests. This area is also the Museum-shop which we designed from natural materials.
Friends:
For this project MAF was the partner design office that designed and developed this project in partnership with KDJ+Tellartfor DCT in Abu Dhabi /UAE.
The project's scope included Concept design, Spatial design, Interaction and AV-content production, Graphic Design and Art-direction.
MAF: Martin Sämmer - Executive creative director
KDJ: Mark de Jong - overall lead, Wendy Jansen - Overall PM, Femke Bijlsma - Content-developer, Alejandra Calderon - Senior spatial designer, Berthe Mandaat - DTP, Osama Elcontar - Arabic DTP
TELLART: Matt Cottam - media lead, Bjørn Karmann - Creative director-media, Joanna Roman - PM-media, Luca Zander - Mediadesign, Stefano Erba - Mediadesign
Light design: Heinz Loopstra
AV hardware and interaction: Tellart (concept and production)
Build: Projex UAE (Joe Villamonte)
Photography: Mohamed Somji (Photography)
And many more..
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