Alternative Skies is a spatial installation that amplifies the connection between natural materials and collective building knowledge. The project reveals a neglected richness of construction techniques in an era of environmental decline, offering a view of the potential for building intelligence that riles on the relationships between natural principles and collective knowledge to construct with sensitivity to both ecological and cultural values.

At the heart of the installation is the roof—the most essential yet complex element in architecture. Alternative Skies presents a 2-by-6-meter vaulted arcade, conceived as a patchwork of roofing techniques elevated on a scaffolding system, the roofs are generated using stone, terracotta, timber, and willow. The arcade is more than a physical structure; it serves as a metaphor for the interplay between nature and design and embodies the ways patterns, forces, and construction details create shelters grounded in the tacit knowledge of crafts..

Through the proposed structures, Alternative skies seeks to explore hidden materiality behind these roofs—particularly heat, air, and water— and aims to redefine the boundaries between design, craftsmanship, and natural elements. Alternative Skies responds to the curatorial prompt of intelligence by showing how natural intelligence in formations, patterns, and forces work together to ground us in the history and culture of making, building, and dwelling.

Description

Alternative Skies Archive

Participants:

Wesam Al Asali, Sigrid Adriaenssens (Form Finding Lab), Romina Canna, and Robin Oval

Authorial Collaborators:

IWLab; D-Lab, IE School of Architecture and Design

Technical Collaborators:

Salvador Gomis Aviñó, CERCAA; Angel Maria Martín López, La Escuela de Carpintería de lo Blanco de Narros del Castillo; Carlos Fontales Ortíz; ETSAMadera

Team Members:

Marah Sharabati, Joelle Deeb, Sadek Jooriah, Michaela Zavacká, Alaa Belal, Hayk Areg Khachikyan, Marta Garcia Salamanca, Malena Gronda Garrigues

Thanks:

Alejandro García Hermida, Kinda Ghannoum, Alessandro Dell'Endice, Fablab IE University, Maintenance Team IE University

Supporters:

Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, IE School of Architecture and Design, Research Office at IE University, IE Foundation