Invented Landscapes
Venice Biennale 2014Location: Venice Biennale Swiss Pavilion
Workshop and Exhibition, Summer 2014
In Collaboration with Souraya Fathallah, Sibylle George, Lea Zeitoun (pre-workshop) and Yara Rahme (workshop)
Inspired by works of Cedric Price and Lucius Burckhardt, the workshop looked at creating new invented visions for the Lebanese steep terrain, involving formal and conceptual explorations between land and space.
The Invented Landscapes workshop considers several prototypical crops of land, taken vertically in section from several regions across the Lebanese mountain chain in the vicinity of Greater Beirut, and will attempt to modulate in each scenario a new approach to forming, both land and space.We will investigate and catalogue the different characteristics that affect that zone, be it social, economical, geographical, morphological, spatial, etc… For each, we will propose a new scenario for creating a moment between land and space.
The workshop, organized by the American University of Beirut’s Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management department (LDEM) and its Architecture and Design department (ArD), took place in September 2014 at the Swiss Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, as part of the pavilion’s School of Tomorrow program.
Link to Project︎︎︎
PRE-WORKSHOP: Analysis for ‘Harissa to Jounieh’ in Lebanon
The objective was to explore and identify potential typologies of design interventions on sloped terrains to direct the development of ex-urban contexts towards meaningful ecological, social, and cultural strategies. Part of the objective is to merge architectural and landscape methodologies into a single integrated approach. The workshop looked at areas lying at the extension of current urban sprawl around major cities along the coast. This selected area is Harissa to Jounieh.
The objective was to explore and identify potential typologies of design interventions on sloped terrains to direct the development of ex-urban contexts towards meaningful ecological, social, and cultural strategies. Part of the objective is to merge architectural and landscape methodologies into a single integrated approach. The workshop looked at areas lying at the extension of current urban sprawl around major cities along the coast. This selected area is Harissa to Jounieh.
WORKSHOP: Ripples
The box is viewed as a functional element that illustrates the rippling effect of urbanization. The interactive box becomes retrospection on human impact on landscape.
Lifting the cover of the box positions the user not only as the revealer, but as the puppeteer of the urban impact.The new invented landscapes are the result of a sequential tectonic of both the user and the urban sprawl that decomposes the terrain.The urban impact is a dynamic factor that disturbs and dissects the natural setting.
The box is viewed as a functional element that illustrates the rippling effect of urbanization. The interactive box becomes retrospection on human impact on landscape.
Lifting the cover of the box positions the user not only as the revealer, but as the puppeteer of the urban impact.The new invented landscapes are the result of a sequential tectonic of both the user and the urban sprawl that decomposes the terrain.The urban impact is a dynamic factor that disturbs and dissects the natural setting.