Hiba Schahbaz: The Garden

Hiba Schahbaz: The Garden — IADA 2026 award

Hiba Schahbaz: The Garden received Platinum Winner recognition at the International Architecture & Design Awards 2026 in Institutional & Public Facilities. Project status, design team and credits are listed alongside the presentation.

About the project

Over the past five years, I’ve built a strong foundation in Exhibition Design through my work at The Harvard Art Museums and MOCA North Miami. As an artist, I approach experimental spatial design as my medium, creating unique, ephemeral environments that encourage engagement and deliver memorable experiences. MOCA’s layout becomes a space for me to carve pathways that elevate and re-contextualize our artists’ work.

Working with curator Jasmine Wahi, and the curatorial and production teams, this project became an exploration of storytelling through transformation, color, and spatial rhythm.

The exhibition design for Hiba Schahbaz: The Garden centers on four converging triangular portals guiding visitors through five sequential zones of Transcendence, Architecture, Air/Sea, Fire, toward a crescendoing finale of Earth, symbolizing renewal. The geometry draws on Islamic arabesque mosaics and elemental themes, creating a journey marked by shifting sight-lines, optical interplay, and a carefully selected green color palette spanning from the lightest of lights, a subtle green mist, to the darkest of darks, ashes of a forest fire. These transitions evoke a liminal space between reality and fantasy, offering distinct experiences upon entering and exiting the exhibition. The exhibition breaks free from the expectations of a static display, revealing itself as living procession — a quiet but carefully orchestrated choreography of art and interior architecture, turning the exhibition design into an art piece itself.

Spanning more than 5,000 square feet within Miami’s oldest contemporary art museum, the project honors MOCA North Miami’s legacy of bold, socially resonant exhibitions. With the museum approaching its 30th anniversary—and operating within the scale, schedule, and financial limitations of a smaller institution-material and logistical efficiency were essential. Designed over a year and installed in four weeks, the exhibition relied on precise fabrication and planning to ensure structural and aesthetic integrity. The environment achieves expansiveness and wonder without costly or permanent interventions, aligning with MOCA’s rapid exhibition schedule.

The conception and realization of The Garden reflect what museum spaces can become when art, architecture, and design converge with clarity and intention. Within real constraints, the project transforms the museum into an immersive landscape that encourages reflection on self, belonging, and spiritual resilience amid a fractured political zeitgeist. By bridging the artist’s personal mythology with the collective experience of visitors, the exhibition reinforces MOCA’s role as a pioneering institution shaping cultural dialogue in North Miami and beyond. As the installation dissolves boundaries between viewer and artwork, The Garden stands as a testament to creative adaptability, bold vision, and the transformative power of exhibition design.

MOCA North Miami

MOCA North Miami is a vibrant and inclusive space for contemporary art. Rooted in and inspired by our diverse communities, we serve as a vital catalyst for artistic innovation and community engagement.Through bold exhibitions, education and public programming, and our permanent collection, we cultivate a lifelong love of the arts.