An exploration of paper as a material language, using handmade sheets, experimental poetry and book art to explore how multicultural memories can be expressed, recorded and encountered through sensory experience.

Taqleem celebrates the nostalgic livelihood across the UAE by remodeling collective functions and familiar elements. The skill of trimming palm trees is called Taqleem in Arabic. It is a careful method of cleaning palm trees of their dried-out fronds and overgrown fibers. A palm tree blesses its surroundings with the capability to create sturdy waste as it sheds its fronds. It constantly pays homage to traditional settlements and has an intricate nature that creates other patterns.

The design plays with a possibly obvious but intriguing way to use trimmed palm waste in contemporary construction, highlighting the familiar yet too familiar qualities of a palm tree. This botanical cycle becomes an exchange between society and nature. The social exchange between visitors and palm would happen in a humble plan that can be a Musalla, a Majlis or rest zone, inviting people to contemplate and communicate.

About Rasha Saffarini
Rasha Saffarini is an architect, designer, and researcher based in Dubai. Her work focuses on visible and
invisible cultural heritage and seeking modes of recovery through architecture and spatial practice.