Threading Traditions: Tbaba by Gerald Jason Cruz and Roudhah Al Mazrouei for Dubai Design Week

Hello Jason and Roudhah! Congratulations on securing this prized commission for Dubai Design Week! Can you give us a brief account of how you secured this installation project?

Gerald Jason Cruz, co-designer of Tbaba: Hi there! Dubai Design Week, the Middle East’s largest celebration of design and creativity, has a yearly and selective open call for pavilions and installations. We had been eyeing to submit a proposal after designing pavilions and sculptural works in the UAE as a collective for the past three years, and the few months after we graduated from university seemed like the perfect time for us to put forward a design, which the organizers accepted soon after. Apart from us, other participants include experienced designers, architects, organizations, and companies, so participating in this year’s program has been humbling and is a testament to our shared expertise.

Great! Let’s now talk about the project. Were there specific moments, cultural artifacts, or traditions you drew from when conceptualizing Tbaba? Any unexpected influences that shaped the final design?

Roudhah Al Mazrouei, co-designer of Tbaba: Thanks for having us!

Tbaba is drawn from the distinctive red cloth that protects pearls, symbolizing the delicate relationship between the divers and the treasures they sought. The idea of community also influenced the design—the entire team supporting each diver. The wind, an essential natural element, was an unexpected influence. It mirrors the Gulf’s waters and adds motion, connecting the installation to the fluidity of the sea.

Filipino and Emirati cultures boast rich maritime histories, yet they differ significantly in scale, trading partners, and cultural traditions. How did you navigate these contrasts to forge a unified design expression in Tbaba?

Gerald Jason Cruz: Tbaba highlights different aspects from each culture’s rich maritime histories, creating a marriage between the two. We chose to highlight the subtle importance of the wind in Filipino culture and the ingenuity in harnessing it from the sails used to navigate ships from barangays to the Manila galleons to folk stories such as that of Amihan and Habagat, the seasonal monsoon wind patterns of the country. When planning the pavilion, we created simulations to curate how the wind would interact with the fabric, reflecting its central role in our installation.

Roudhah Al Mazrouei: Pearl diving was a crucial industry in the Gulf region before the country’s founding, which brought about rapid development. Highlighting the essential cloth used in this process allows us to preserve the story of this significant point in Emirati history.

Your choice of materials is intriguing. Scaffolding, a workman’s tool, is often associated with the frenetic pace of urban development in both the UAE and Manila, which you contrast with the softness and grace of the striking red tbaba-inspired fabric. The installation suggests a marriage between these materials’ functional and symbolic meanings. How did you distinguish between their practical uses and the cultural or symbolic significance you’ve imbued them with in Tbaba?

Roudhah Al Mazrouei: Scaffolding serves as a literal and metaphorical framework. Structurally, it supports the fabric, creating a passageway. Symbolically, it reflects the support system of the divers. The red fabric embodies the cultural artifact while maintaining durability, bridging utility and heritage. This balance ensures the materials communicate both historical significance and practical purpose.

Gerald Jason Cruz: Additionally, scaffolding and fabric are materials that we have worked with extensively in the past. The experience with these materials has allowed us to take advantage of their relatively low cost and sustainable properties (through reuse and repurposing) while also playing with the impact they can create in innovative ways.

Let’s explore the use of the tbaba as a symbol more deeply. You’ve transformed this fabric from its original, protective, utilitarian role into a kinetic element that interacts with the crowd and responds to natural forces. Could you share the rationale behind this reinterpretation and the message you hope to convey to visitors within the context of the design festival?

Gerald Jason Cruz: Reimagining the red cloth with modern kinetic movement allowed us to celebrate its historical role while presenting it as a living, breathing form. Apart from its cultural significance, red is a connecting theme with our previous work for the Abu Dhabi Art Pavilion Prize and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award.

Roudhah Al Mazrouei: Rather than a static symbol, the fluttering cloth resonates with today’s dynamic Gulf culture. Lighting adds a contemporary touch, amplifying its presence while preserving its essence.

Your installation’s kinetic interplay of light, fabric, and wind creates a rich sensory experience. How does this dynamic relationship not only evoke the passage of time and the labor of pearl diving, rooted in the tbaba’s cultural significance, but also transform visitors’ understanding of their interactions with space and memory?

Roudhah Al Mazrouei: The kinetic interplay of light, fabric, and wind is intended to evoke the passing of time and the labor-intensive pearl diving process. Shadows ripple, invoking memories of the divers’ rhythmic work. Achieving this movement while maintaining structural stability was challenging, requiring a delicate balance to ensure the fabric responded to natural forces without compromising the installation’s form.

With Tbaba currently in its finishing touches, how do you hope it might influence perceptions of both Filipino and Emirati design within the broader architectural community? What insights or personal takeaways from this experience do you anticipate carrying forward in your future design journeys?

Cruz and Al Mazrouei: We believe Tbaba emphasizes low-cost ingenuity and intercultural design. In a country like the UAE, there’s a preconceived notion that every solution must be high-tech or expensive. Tbaba sends a message to look towards natural systems and sustainable practices, which can sometimes be even more effective than otherwise. Furthermore, Tbaba is a cultural exchange between the Philippines and the UAE, reflecting the many Filipinos in the country. Our collective aims to embody and show the possibilities of collaborations like this, and we aim to continue this cultural exchange to add a unique perspective towards architectural and design discourse in a global context. •

Shukran, Jason and Roudhah! Here’s to the success of the installation!

The Designers

Roudhah Al Mazrouei
Born in Al Ain in 2003, Roudhah Al Mazrouei is an Abu Dhabi-based visual artist whose work explores themes of cultural memory, ecological interdependence, and preservation. Her pieces draw on the UAE’s landscapes and cultural histories, intertwining land, language, and resilience. Primarily an oil painter, she also works in public art, film, and photography, crafting immersive experiences that lead viewers through layered narratives of identity and place. Al Mazrouei holds a BA in Art and Art History from New York University Abu Dhabi and is pursuing an MFA at the Royal College of Art.

Gerald Jason Cruz
Engineer and aspiring architect Gerald Jason Cruz engages with design as a form of social impact. Growing up in Manila, Cruz saw architecture as a transformative force capable of enhancing everyday life. He graduated in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a minor in Design from New York University Abu Dhabi. His approach is hands-on and community-oriented, with design projects and built works across Abu Dhabi, New York, Münster, Singapore, and Mumbai. Cruz continues exploring architecture’s potential to inspire and improve diverse urban landscapes through these projects.

Dubai Design Week runs from November 5 to 10 at Dubai Design District (D3).
Click here to locate Tbaba within the district.