Join us for a tour of Tarabot: Weaving a Living Forum with architect Adib Dada, founder of regenerative consultancy and architecture practice theOtherDada. Commissioned by Art Jameel to create a pavilion that brings together cutting edge sustainable materials designed and made in the U.A.E., the structure weaves together the diversity of local life and ecosystems at the Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park and beyond.

Tarabot: Weaving a Living Forum acts as an interspecies ecotone – an area where two biological communities meet and integrate – hosting a shared space between human and non-human entities, and creating synergies between the natural world and manmade environments. Made of modular and nested cone components crafted from locally sourced, sustainable materials including clay, mycelium, date palm waste and upcycled fabric, the pavilion is a call for the revival of urban spaces, through a focus on the hyperlocal and the creation of circular ecological support systems within new and existing material structures. Its design incorporates four pillars that speak to its concept, construction and de-installation: Soil, Water, Plants, and Energy. After deinstallation, the modular constituents of Tarabot: Weaving a Living Forum will be repurposed for domestic planting on land with the structure taking on new life as underwater habitat for coral and fish, linking life on land to life underwater.

The pavilion includes specially commissioned artwork by Dubai-based artist Solimar Miller, representing indigenous flora and endangered species in the U.A.E.

Adib Dada is the founder of theOtherDada [tOD] Regenerative Consultancy & Architecture, whose mission is to activate projects across architecture, design, and art by creating unconventional links at the frontier of science. Going beyond traditional architecture, his work employs a holistic and biomimetic design approach with nature and people at its core. Adib served on the Supporting Committee of the Beirut Art Center, and sits on the Board of Tandem Works and Saja Foundation. He earned a BA in Architecture at the American University of Beirut, an MA in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, and completed the Biomimicry graduate certificate from the Biomimicry Institute and Arizona State University.  Adib was listed as one of GOOD Magazine’s GOOD 100 for his project Beirut RiverLESS, which he initiated to implement positive urban interventions including the planting of urban native forests alongside Beirut River and in the city at large. He is a Fellow of the Middle East Leadership Initiative, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a Bio-Leadership Fellow.

theOtherDada is a Beirut-based regenerative consultancy and architecture practice founded by Adib Dada, working with nature to build shared habitats for humans and other organisms to thrive. They are Lebanon’s first BCorp certified company built on the firm belief that businesses have the responsibility and opportunity to action meaningful, positive impact. tOD takes an alternative approach to sustainability, through the deep consideration of context and medium of their work- fostering new relationships between climate, landscape, and inhabitants.  Their research in biomimicry enables a conscious connection to the natural ecosystems of sites to build interspecies habitats.