KOCHI: At the entrance of the Dubai Design Week, an international exhibition of design and creativity, stood a tall, stunningly designed pavilion made from recycled materials. The structure, christened the Abwab Pavilion, is the brain child of malayali architect Fahed Majeed and his core team of designers. The speciality of the structure, which has received several rave reviews, is that it was created using recycled materials, largely bedspring coils (more than 900), recycled tyres and other recycled aggregates. Fahed and his team visited Be’eah, an environmental and waste management giant in Dubai, to collect materials for the pavilion.
“In our very first visit, as we were skimming and driving through their yards, we came across a mount of magestically laid mattress coil springs. The material was inspiring. Though the mount on site was big- it was lying on the ground effortlessly filtering light through it and casting vibrant shadows. Fascinated by its lightness and transient character, the bedsprings and its mesh like silhouette, looked like the perfect raw material to create a work of art.
The environmental commitment that we uphold prompted us to bring a dose of meaningful recycling to Dubai,” said Fahed, who also has a firm in Kochi. Living up to its name (Abwab translates as ‘doors’), the show provided visitors with a unique insight into techniques, materials and craft from a series of studios from over 10 countries: Previous editions of Abwab have featured designs from Algeria, Bahrain, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the UAE.
How it came about Fahed said the officials at the Dubai Design Week got to see a few of their works, some of which were proposed to be located in D3. “In the subsequent meeting they had enquired if we would be interested in designing the pavilion. We were more than eager to be a part of this. What got us all the more interested was the involvement of Be’eah,” he said. The primary decision to involve Be’eah was that by Dubai Design Week.
The core idea was to focus on recycle and reuse and to develop a structure that reflects the same. Be’eah has perhaps the largest recycling facility in the MENA region with state-of-the-art recycling facilities for recycling rubber, metal, plastic and even mattresses. The approach for this project was absolutely different from a conventional one. Concept of sustainability? According to Fahed, the Pavilion starts and ends with the very concept of sustainability. All materials used in the development of this structure are sustainable and 100 per cent recyclable. At the end of the exhibition all the materials go back to Be’eah yard for recycling.