tutor: 

Conor de Búrca (Ireland)

participants:​​​​​​​

Nicola Guida (Italy)

Tessa Krämer (Germany)

Jack Prendergast (Ireland)

Georgia Momparak (Greece)

Vlerim Sojeva (Kosovo)

Nickolas Naimeh (Lebanon)

Quendresë Tërmkolli (Kosovo)

Joe Murphy (Ireland)

Autodome stands for the combination of two words Autoprogettazione + Geodesic Dome, and acts as an ode to the revolutionary ideas of Enzo Mari and Buckminster Fuller respectively. The aim of this workshop therefore was not a reinvention of the wheel but a chance for participants to learn about and be inspired by the design ideas of two modern greats. With one common goal; to create a new urban public space for the people of Jbeil, all the while a careful curation in keeping with the ‘DiverCity’ theme ethos – a 21st century approach in a historical urban tissue.

The Geodesic Structure Pavilion is located on The Fountain Square, situated by the central entrance point to the old souk of Byblos. A minimal piazza recently executed consisting of a fountain and primarily empty paved surface. A lack of shade and exposure to summer heat with only one resting area, the brief noted it didn’t seem to be working as a meeting point but more as a crossing to people heading towards the citadel. Autodome, accessible to all, engages community to congregate and take a seat on some of the furniture pieces within to use as their own type of public living room. A central forum, offering citizens a different perspective on the use of public space. A place to meet, relax and chat with friends or to reflect on what Lebanese urban street life & its culture means for the inhabitants and tourists enjoying the beautiful city of Byblos.

The workshop began with a focus on participants each making their own piece of furniture, based off Enzo Mari’s ‘Autoprogettazione’. An open source pattern book with some 20 designs for making easy to assemble furniture using rough boards and nails. This initial task presented an opportunity to participants to familiarise themselves with simple hand tools and with the quick assembly of a finished realised simple piece of furniture, proving very useful to rest on throughout the two weeks of the workshop.

The designs formulated, either individually or in pairs range from direct replicas of the Sedia Uno chair to extruded bench versions, some with slight variations in expression perhaps replacing or altering one component to give a unique take on and own personal version of an Autoprogettazione piece. The result of which can be found in many seats to take refuge on placed throughout the site and within the dome surrounding the Tavolo Rotundo table.

The Geodesic dome itself takes the shape of a hemisphere through the appearance of a lightweight triangulated structural system or lattice shell, synonymous with the work of Buckminster Fuller. 3V frequency in form, this dome measures a total of 6 meters in diameter and 3.5 meters in height. The dimension of the timber used; 100mm x 20mm roughly in cross section cut into just 3 different lengths.

The structure is made up of 99 triangle units in total, the triangles being constructed using a Jig method consisting of two templates; pentagon and hexagon in shape. Participants first measured and cut complex angles using mitre and chop saws, then proceeded to sanding, clamping & screwing, hand sawing and sanding again! and finally oiling each finished triangle. The joining of these triangles into 14 larger modules were then fixed together to create one complete dome, this method being chosen for ease of assembly and transportation to site.

The dome sits comfortably positioned within its piazza, one panel omitted acts as its threshold facing the Roman Decumanus and central MEDS Byblos DiverCity advert while pedestrians and drivers alike can pass by with the natural flow of the city uninterrupted. It’s geodesic pattern, open and transparent in nature invites people to enter and explore the dome, once inside offering a kind of privacy screen while at the same time framing views back towards the Lebanese context and sky beyond.

Yalla Habibi!

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