The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is pleased to announce its participation in the 7th edition of the Beirut Design Week exhibition.
Since 2016, and within the UNIDO project “Supporting the Furniture sector in the Northern Lebanon through upgrading and skills training”, funded by the Government of Japan, UNIDO has been working in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry in the North of Lebanon to support the wood-working and furniture making sector by delivering technical trainings for SMEs and young people, promoting new furniture designs, identifying market opportunities for enterprises working with this initiative and rehabilitating a new Vocational Training Center for Carpentry.
For the second year, and following the theme “Design and the City”, UNIDO participated in Beirut Design Week and worked with Designers, Artist and Architects to speculate on the relevance of public spaces in the city of Al Mina in Northern Lebanon in collaboration with Al Mina Municipality. In an open call, UNIDO encouraged creative minds to research and look for potentials in the very diverse and rich urban environment of the region. 15 different small-scale urban interventions were chosen and five winning concepts were selected by the international Jury.
For the first time, two projects were produced and executed at the Vocational training Center for Carpentry in Zgharta Official Technical Institute in North Lebanon by the project trainers who are carpenters from the North and tested during Beirut Design Week on site. The first project was inspired by the seashell and waves that are well presented on El Mina beach. The design is divided into different cross sections based on different family ages, starting from kids to adults’ and ending by a shading zone for optimum comfort. While the second design inspiration comes from boat-hull construction used throughout many of the fishing and touring boats along Mina’s coast. This method provides an elegant way of creating an intervention, which rises from a platform structure to create an undulation that can interact with body sizes of all sorts while providing a place to: sit in the shade, lie down in the sun or wait for a friend.
The participation in the Beirut Design Week was held on Sunday 24 June, 2018. It made the achievements of designers and craftsmen visible and revealed deficits in the structure of a city. These unban designs will be left exhibited in Al Mina and will be open for the public to have a closer look about them.