The Location: Bait Higher Ground, Pearling Path, Muharraq, Bahrain
Tickets: No entry tickets required
Support: The exhibition is supported by Bait Higher Ground and MSCEB (Mohammed Salahuddin Consulting Engineering Bureau)
In March 1976, during a rainy week, an architecture exhibition took place at the Hilton Hotel in Manama, which may have been the first architecture competition and exhibition ever held in the country. Although the winning project was never realized, the competition offers valuable insights and connections regarding the genesis of architectural exhibitions, competitions, and cultural institutions within Bahrain. The Ministry of Works, Electricity, and Water invited five architects to participate in a design competition for a cultural center: André Wogenscky (France), Basil Spence (Britain), Paul Rudolph (USA), Roland Rainer (Austria), and Timo Penttilä (Finland). Jørn Utzon (Denmark) and Kenzo Tange (Japan) were also invited but chose not to participate.
The selected architects received compensation
and funds for developing their models, with the
competition brief drafted by Raymond Ghosn,
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and
Architecture at the American University of Beirut.
The jury included Lawrence B. Anderson (MIT,
USA), Tobias Faber (Art Academy, Denmark),
Rafael de la Hoz (International Union of
Architects, Spain), Alfred Roth (ETH Zurich,
Switzerland), and Michel Ecochard (France), who
unanimously selected Timo Penttilä’s proposal.
This exhibition interweaves stories from dispersed archives and accounts from contemporaries of the participating architects to pay homage to what may have been the first architecture exhibition in the country.
