As winter descends on Gaza’s camp locations, emergency cover made from mushrooms may keep out the cold—just one of several green, home-grown innovations put forth by Muslim designers at an exhibition in Dubai.
Light, warm and flexible, mushroom-based structures are an attractive option to the flimsy shelters then housing several thousands of Gazans displaced by more than a year of war, according to Dima Al Srouri, a member of the ReRoot initiative.
” Right then, there is a big problem with the homes that they’re receiving from NGOs”, she said at Dubai Design Week, which featured a range of environment-friendly improvements.
” When the spring comes, when it rains, when it’s too warm, they’re hardly working really”.
Mycelium, the root-like portion of a pathogen, can be grown in combination with organic matter to meet different-shaped castings, producing a powerful building materials that can be cultivated everywhere.
It’s” a good substance because it’s totally natural”, urban planning specialist Srouri, who is Arab, said next to a prototype shelter—a roomy, enclosed structure with windows and a steep roof.
It can help them avoid extreme weather conditions by offering solutions to the extreme cold.
At the Dubai International Architecture Awards, which ended on Sunday, ReRoot’s emergency housing was not the only example of sustainable Arab design.
Emirati architect and designer Abdalla Almulla is proponent of a very different approach: low-rise buildings made of recycled construction waste, in contrast to the tall, towering high-rises that dominate the city’s skyline.
A nod to the Gulf’s traditional methods of construction, Almulla and the Swiss company Oxara, which produces low-carbon cement replacements.
Many of the architecture and designs, especially in the area where I live, were based on discovering the surrounding area, finding material nearby, and then being creative and creating from it, Almulla said.
The model is intended as a riposte to the “world of abundance” that has come to characterize modern design, he added.
” Whenever you want… something, you need to ship it from halfway around the world”.
Sustainability is not a luxury.
As well as the large-scale installations, smaller objects were on display, including furniture made from recycled materials and a 3D-printed electric motorcycle.
Faheem Khan, a Qatar-based designer, developed a bottle that minimizes water consumption during Wudu, the ritual washing performed by Muslims before prayer.
Elif Resitoglu of Isola Design, the Milan-based studio that organized the exhibition, said sustainability was a “new thing” for Arab designers.
But they “blended it into their culture”, designing objects that” a Western designer could not actually design”, she said.
While the region is more concerned with conflicts than environmental matters, tackling the issue “is not a luxury”, said Srouri.
She said,” I always think that your work is the best way to do activism.”
” You do n’t have to shout out loud on the streets… Sometimes it’s possible to learn something new and use it to help others solve their own problems.
The UAE, a major oil producer which hosted the UN’s COP28 climate talks last year, is one of the world’s largest emitters of CO2 per capita.
Additionally, it is particularly vulnerable to climate change because it is located in one of the world’s hottest regions.
The Middle East is warming at a rate nearly twice as fast as the average global average, according to climate data.
Citation: Gaza with restrooms? Egyptian manufacturers offer home-grown improvements (2024, November 16) retrieved 16 November 2024 from
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