All Around and Within, a project by Clinical Assistant Professor Barbara Materia and graduate students Zaineh Ghanayem, Justin Sobczak, and Muhammad Zegar for the Theatre Architecture Competition (TAC 25), was selected by an international jury and will be exhibited at the World Stage Design event in Sharjah in October 2025. The exhibition will take place at the Sharjah Art Foundation’s Bait Obaid Al Shamsi.
All Around and Within aims to activate Bait Al Shamsi’s open space by operating along its perimeter. Deploying a minimal number of elements—a light, translucent thermal fabric supported by slender metallic tubular columns and a stepped tribune—it proposes a structure that could become permanent, improving the courtyard’s usability year-round and transforming it into a true civic space.
The World Stage Design (WSD) is the first and only designer-based exhibition to showcase and celebrate performance design from individual designers. Held every four years, WSD has now travelled to five cities: Toronto, Seoul, Cardiff, Taipei, and Calgary. The sixth WSD exhibition will be held in Sharjah, UAE, from Saturday, 18th to Saturday, 25th October 2025 and will be co-produced by Sharjah Performing Arts Academy and the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre, Architects, and Technicians (OISTAT).
TAC is an international ideas competition that seeks innovative concepts for a performance space aimed at providing the best use and highest value of an area dedicated to cultural activities. The 12th OISTAT Theatre Architecture Competition was organized by Sharjah Performing Arts Academy (SPAA) and the OISTAT Architecture Commission with support from Sharjah Art Foundation and Sharjah Architecture Triennale, and sponsored by Charcoalblue (UK).