Weaving Barada
Ongoing
Team: Iyas Shahin | Wesam Al Asali | Talah al Shami | Mohammad Zanboua | Joelle Deeb
Our lab is working on a dialogue project with artisans and makers (outside the traditional heritage system) to formulate products from their craft but at architectural scales. At this stage, we have established this cooperation in terms of language, geometries, and new technologies by working with a reed-weaving artisan in Damascus.
This is part of our collaboration with one of the few artisans left who work with reeds in the Barada basin river, Hamid Alaita. Reed weaving at bulk scales is not usually an interest of heritage preservationists who prefer products that can be nicely wrapped and sold to tourists. We are trying to propose a different value that comes from finding new applications for old techniques found and practiced in everyday life.
