Pressure Cooker Recipes: An Architectural Cookbook

A publication titled Pressure Cooker Recipes: An Architectural Cookbook, edited by Azza Aboualam, published by Kaph Books, accompanies the exhibition. Blending research, essays, and creative contributions, it reflects on the intersection of architecture and food production over time. Using a cookbook format divided into five main chapters, the texts and illustrations highlight agrarian practices in arid environments and beyond, offering new perspectives on our relationship with food production, climate-adaptive design, and urban infrastructures. Each entry responds to a unique set of ingredients that was provided to the contributors. Featuring original research, technical essays, architectural drawings, photography and fiction, it examines how food-growing infrastructures in the UAE respond to environmental challenges, cultural traditions, and global food security concerns. By drawing parallels between cooking and architectural processes, the publication reimagines sustainable design solutions for arid environments.

Azza Aboualam Bio:

Azza Aboualam is an Emirati architect and curator of the National Pavilion UAE for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2025. She is an Assistant Professor at the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University, Dubai, UAE, and a Co-founder and Director of Research at Holesum Studio, an interdisciplinary architecture and design practice based between New York, USA, and Sharjah, UAE. She co-founded the studio in 2021 a few years after graduating from the Yale School of Architecture.

Her scholarly interests include the intersection of memory, architecture, and society in the Middle East and North Africa region. Aboualam worked with the UAE Ministry of Culture’s Architecture Initiative, and her field research, sketches, and writing were published in the book In Search of Spaces of Coexistence: An Architect’s Journey (2019), edited by Dr. Alamira Reem Al Hashimi and Adina Hempel. She also contributed research to Building Sharjah (2021), edited by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi and Todd Reisz, and Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai (2020), written by Todd Reisz. While working in Sharjah’s Department of Public Works, Aboualam managed the design and construction of large-scale projects such as the Aga Khan Award–winning Wasit Wetland Center. In 2014, Aboualam was a Venice Intern at the National Pavilion UAE’s debut participation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia with the exhibition Lest We Forget: Structures of Memory in the UAE, curated by Dr. Michele Bambling.