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If you consider Dubai, you would possibly image its iconic skyline and breathtaking structure. Now, a gaggle of architects and designers is embracing sustainable innovation to create installations which might be solely a fraction of the dimensions of the town’s hovering towers, however no much less impressed.
Amongst them, Dubai-based Syrian Ahmad Alkattan has created a cocoon-style intimate outside social area the place designers can “hatch” their concepts. Not solely does it supply shade and seating for people — it additionally supplies shelter to pigeons.
Named “Designest,” it’s impressed by the historic significance of pigeon towers within the Arabian Peninsula, the place buildings that always featured lovely arches and detailed engravings have been constructed to guard pigeons throughout harsh climate and accumulate their feces to be used as fertilizer, in addition to showcasing the wealth of the tower’s proprietor.
Designest options pigeon nests on the high of the rectangular construction, whereas three arched entrances on the backside welcome human guests. The sections for people and pigeons are separated, and hen feces collected from the highest part shall be used as fertilizer for vegetation in Dubai’s Design District.
Alkattan’s design is a part of the annual Dubai Design Week and gained first place in its City Commissions competitors, which invitations designers and designers to develop revolutionary outside furnishings. Alkattan mentioned the thought for Designest got here from analyzing all of the potential customers of an outside construction in Dubai — not simply people but in addition the prevalent pigeon inhabitants.
“The competitors requested to design a shading machine, a gathering place or a seating space,” he mentioned. “I attempted to do all of that collectively, however I’ve at all times had an curiosity in non-human design, and at all times thought ‘why does every thing should be human-centric?’”
Now in its ninth 12 months, Dubai Design Week (DDW), which runs from November 7-12, is the most important occasion of its variety within the area, consisting of workshops, installations, exhibitions and talks. This 12 months, greater than 30 designs for installations submitted for DDW have been constructed within the metropolis’s Design District.
Forward of the upcoming COP28 local weather convention in Dubai, the theme for this 12 months’s design week emphasizes sustainable practices and supplies. Mette Degn-Christensen, director of DDW’s flagship design truthful Downtown Design, and former director of DDW, mentioned sustainability has been carried out into the occasion’s design standards for the previous six years, “however this 12 months, it’s actually about new types of sustainable practices, for instance not simply 3D-printing but in addition the totally different sorts of supplies you may 3D-print with.”
Alkattan’s Designest construction was initially designed to be 3D-printed utilizing recycled glass fiber bolstered concrete (GFRC), however time, price and weight constraints meant the prototypes constructed for DDW use a mixture of environmentally pleasant strategies and supplies, together with mixing a plant-based plastic various with wooden powder, and 3D-printing with sand.
“Being environmentally accountable along with your design from the very early design phases is not any extra a distinct segment, it’s extra of a necessity,” mentioned Alkattan, who’s a contract idea designer and architect. “That’s why I did my Grasp’s in renewable vitality engineering. It’s not associated to structure, however I needed to … concentrate on make my design extra sustainable from the early design phases quite than or not it’s an afterthought.”
Different design installations that match the sustainability theme embody Emirati architect Abdalla Almulla’s pavilion “Of Palm,” made totally from the indigenous palm tree, and Dubai-based structure and inside design agency TEE VEE EFF’s “Pulp Fractions,” an set up made out of waste cardboard and paper pulp that has been pressed, dried, and molded.
“We search for sensible designs which might be sustainable and scalable throughout the UAE area,” mentioned Degn-Christensen of the designs which might be chosen for DDW. “So [the competition] is a really related venture not only for what’s staged in Dubai Design Week, however the place we are able to see this sooner or later.”
Designest is Alkattan’s third try at profitable the City Commissions class. “Competitions are one of the best place to specific your concepts with out being managed by the views of your shoppers or the fee, or the feasibility,” mentioned Alkattan. “It helps to push the boundaries of what’s actually attainable.”