Making Your Home, Wherever You Are | Abeer Seikaly | TEDxKlagenfurt

We are facing a massive humanitarian crisis of displacement - communities of millions on the move are fleeing violence & natural disasters.They carry what they can to resettle in unknown lands with nothing but a tent to make into a home. Despite our global technological and scientific advancements, refugee camps are inadequately designed for their inhabitants to truly live. How do we integrate various fields of knowledge and benefit from the wide pool of human experience in order to meaningfully innovate upon the ideas of shelter? This talk is a reflective and personal journey of an architect who discovers the elements that make a shelter into a home. Through the creative process, she builds upon multi-disciplinary notions of nature, tradition, community and well-being as she considers architecture and design to be a social and cultural practice. This process strives to create homes instead of just shelters and to plan communities instead of camps for the displaced. In essence, as Buckminster Fuller stated, “It is the way we live that needs attention.” Abeer Seikaly is an architect, artist, designer and cultural producer. She received her Bachelor of Architecture and Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002. She joined Villa Moda, a lifestyle and luxury retail concept in Kuwait and the Gulf as a senior architect and project manager in 2005 and directed the first contemporary art fair in Jordan in 2010. In addition to her independent practice, Abeer is also the production manager of Adel Abidin, the internationally recognized Iraqi/Finnish video artist. In 2012, Abeer’s design, “The Chandelier,” was selected as the winner of The Rug Company’s Wallhanging Design Competition and she was selected as a winner for the Lexus Design Award for her work, “Weaving a Home”. With the later project, she addressed the need of refugees seeking shelter by creating a technical, structural fabric that expands to enclose and contracts for mobility while providing the comforts of contemporary life. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@ricktonita6399]

The gift of being able to create is miraculous - to conceive of an idea and then bring it into being, into reality. Thank Ms. Seikaly for your caring, your courage to create and your creations.

[@Nurit9]

The eloquence, elegance and astute articulation is truly something to applaud and be in awe of. You are a diamond in the rough Abeer! Thank you for your work, your dedication, and above all, your passionate eye! Beauty personified, are you and your projects.

[@CacaoJunajpu]

you are a heart-inspired genius. May all your projects come to fruition. Thank you Matyox......

[@MrRocknrollas]

Humanitarian crisis !!! Is this the best we can do?? Excellent speech just before covid made it worse !!!

[@eritage]

Thanks for this commendable work by a nice person, with humanist values. And her diction is excellent !

[@erikag.5705]

Very well spoken and true ‼️ 👏👏👏 Bravo this speech needs to be promoted all over….❤️ HOME 🏠

[@alazaat]

Thanks, Abeer for the Impressive presentation and Nobel ideation. The courtyard translates in Syrian Arabic dialect as: Diyar, which again means: Home. What a lovely coincidence :)

[@epesiano]

People who anticipate in improving humanitarian status are few. Abeer, you are one of them. Since childhood you interacted with people and later on devoted your life style to encompassing as many as the less fortunate as your capacity could accommodate. Keep up the good.

[@kamalfilmz]

Thank you Abeer, you really made the right connection, between human perceivement of habitation, and design of a physical space for living in. Good work.

[@cathymcpeek-nave9574]

Thank you, your search and your work is very important to our humanity.

[@selasun4]

Wow!! Thank you for helping others with your creativity and making this world a better place. Your design is absolutely beautiful. Do you sell these fabric homes? I would love to have a little community in Africa, living in these wonderful homes. May God continue blessing you.

[@tranhai5146]

Thank you much

[@yosoyelcorrido]

Wow!!!! I loved this presentation and admire greatly the creativity, intellignece and humanity of this lady. May God bless her abundantly! As I approach retirement age I contemplate volunteering in humanitarian missions ti help out people in need.

[@daveayala8515]

Yeah just don’t bring religion into it.

[@GonzoKemp]

great project. My respects from Argentina! ✌✌✌✌

[@mrahsalt]

Great Abeer , you are great in every thing

[@dsraia]

The work is wonderful and the heart-felt attitude a gift. UNDP should ask you to develop a prototype "camp."

[@shubhammate6481]

I must try. Thanks for all efforts you made for us TED talk :)

[@AskiIskwew]

Nomadic cultures understand what she talks about because historically we all lived close to Mother Earth. We had to have a mobile lodge to move quickly whatever the reason...natural disasters, war or following animals that are hunted. She is the first to truly apply these 'natural' concepts within architecture.

[@bambit08]

You are wonderful example of the need for our world to embrace all the potential from all people ..... for far too long the world has been trapped in a white male perspective which has been unnecessarily limiting. Thank you for your wonderful creativity and worldly vision.

[@juliannaokike3359]

Yes. Only so as to transition to a permanent one.

[@raithaadel1843]

has this been produced?

[@shaikhlion2266]

I don't know what produced this