Bahrain’s Pearling Path offers a two-decade retrospective on history, identity, and architectural narrative
At the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale OMA-AMO’s exhibition, The Gulf, presented the Arab Gulf states to the world. Depicted as a promised land for contemporary architects, OMA argued that the Gulf was the “final tabula rasa on which new identities can be inscribed.” The promotion of the Gulf countries in the exhibition emphasized their position as client states in the global architecture market, with several millennia of civilization (and architecture) dismissed in favor of promoting new cities, new urbanism, and new architectural repertoires.