Abeer Seikaly Weaves Nomadic Architecture with New Technologies

Jordanian-Palestinian architect and designer Abeer Seikaly synthesizes her ancestry with 21st-century design expertise and technology. She aims to address the collective displacement caused by climate disasters and political turmoil and, in the process, asks: What about architecture is permanent? 

“Architecture is not a static thing,” she says, “but an ever-evolving event and process of becoming. [It]’s a dynamic and interactive system that goes beyond mere physical structures.” This is an apt description of the theory behind and the material construction of her ongoing project Weaving a Home, which offers a durable, lightweight, and transportable tent for displaced people. The design for the prototype—a collapsible dome structure that provides climate control like heating and ventilation, renewable energy, and running water—draws on traditional Bedouin weaving techniques as well as Seikaly’s cultural and political heritage.

Bedouins, a historically nomadic Arab tribe, are characterized by their resourcefulness and intricate hand craftwork—the spirit of which imbues Seikaly’s design. The group’s traditional weaving practices have been used (primarily by women like her great-grandmother) for thousands of years to make rugs or Beit-al-sha’ar, a mobile tent made out of materials like sheep and goat wool.  

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