Abeer Seikaly: Weaving a Home

Abeer Seikaly ist eine interdisziplinäre Kreative aus Jordanien, die in den Bereichen Architektur, Design, bildende Kunst und kulturelle Produktion arbeitet (siehe die Biografie).

Durch ihr Projekt Weaving a Home entwickelt sie ein performatives strukturelles Materialsystem, das dem Konzept der Kreislaufwirtschaft in der Architektur gerecht wird und sich mit der heutigen Lebensweise auseinandersetzt.

Historically, communities in the Arab world were inextricably connected to nature and their surroundings, both inside and outside of their homes. In a modern world governed by consumerism and urbanism, and threatened by a burgeoning climate crisis, the notion of cradle-to-cradle living and design, which embeds nature and sustainability into all processes of life, is needed now more than ever. Shelter is a microcosm that represents how we understand and connect to the universe and to our bodies. Creating a shelter that sustains and supports the thriving of the human spirit and the nurturing of our environment forms the crux of this work.

Weaving a Home has gone through multiple phases since its inception in 2013. The objective was to build a portable, dignified shelter for displaced communities that provides them with the necessities of contemporary life through the development of a double-layered performative structural fabric in the form of a dome. However, the design’s contextual link to land, culture and heritage highlighted the need to consider the wellbeing of different communities beyond simply providing functional solutions. How can the design of a shelter truly create added value?

Using local resources and the intuitive hands of a community of craftsmen and women, the new material system merges mechanics and design, while drawing inspiration from traditional tent-crafting methods that have community and sustainability at their core. Resilient and collapsible, the dome represents a continuity in the evolution of place-making that is not linear but rather circular–rooted in the present, but watered, fed and nurtured by its past.