Fata Morgana By Hozan Zangana
This year’s Abwab commission has been awarded to Iraqi designer Hozan Zangana for his proposal ‘Fata Morgana’, responding to Dubai Design Week’s theme of redefining and reimagining the way we live in an urban environment.
‘Fata Morgana’ presents a conceptual framework for a modern-day city through an open-plan arrangement of seating components around a central origin point and with pillars symbolic for each of the seven Emirates, adapting to today’s requirement for physical distancing, while offering strong research on regionally contextual materials and production processes.
The functionality of the concept aims to amplify the necessity to cross each other’s paths by presenting a pivotal intersection, demanding for interaction between people and reactivating the connection with each other on a social level.
As a nod to historical construction methods used across the Middle East, a rammed earth technique is used in the build the different elements of the pavilion, (re)connecting culture, history and people in a public space.
Hozan Zangana is familiar with Dubai. His first presence was during Design Days Dubai in 2014 when he was invited by Judy Straten Art & Design to do live design performance.
Two years later, he returned for his first participation to the ‘Abwab’ section of Dubai Design Week.
He co-curated and designed the Iraq Pavilion with Rand Abdul Jabbar.
'Fata Morgana' is presented in collaboration with Generous Studio and Woodcast Design will be placed at the heart of Dubai Design District (d3) during Dubai Design Week, 9-14 November 2020.
Images: Generous.Studio, Erik & Petra Hesmerg.
