This is where old salvaged wood is imbued with new life to become stunning art.
While the government constantly pushes the envelope to encourage sustainable living in UAE, aware of our dependency on non-renewable resources, there are few residents who have internalized this way of living.
Miaser Al Habori, with experience in architecture in UK, Yemen and Egypt, brings new perspective to Dubai residents with her new start-up Khashab Designs.
Using up-cycled, repurposed and locally sourced materials, she creates one-of-a-kind daring pieces of furniture with a Middle Eastern and modern aesthetic.
Habori says it’s a different quality of creativity, challenging and enjoyable at the same time:
Envisioning the potential of such material, embracing its imperfections and creating something beautiful out of it.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering and a Masters in Social Entrepreneurship, you could find Habori flipping through Architecture magazines at a very young age. Design was an obvious choice for her – but why social entrepreneurship?
Keenly sensitive to current global challenges, Habori found herself drawn to becoming part of the solution, while also buffing up her technical knowledge. Passionate about the cause, she’s a firm believer in design being an enabler:
Think efficiently designed products built to be easily recycled in their next lifecycle or those that decompose naturally to nurture the soil, or buildings that produce more energy than they consume and purify there own waste!
Once she returned to the UAE from the UK, she saw the lack of furniture that captures the unique heritage of the UAE, with its futuristic and fast-paced spirit.
Habori gradually decided to kick-start her own venture after experimenting with different tools, designs and varied locally sourced scraps:
Aside from being environmentally efficient, Habori prides her designs in being unique, capturing a lesser-documented place in time with art:
We focus on developing collections that are inspired by what makes the UAE one of a kind, and what its residents love about it – its diversity and harmony, its stunning desert, sea and warm sun.
Some of her personal favorites are also bestsellers – and with good reason – from the Sea Shades and Doaan collections.
The Sea Shades collection features the natural colors of the sea with a design reflecting the sea’s constant motion fused with Islamic pattern art. On the other hand, the rustic Doaan collection is inspired from the stunning Wadi Doan in Yemen; with its rock formation and man made cubic architecture that blends in and works in harmony with nature:
Open call to all designers, interior designers, and senior design students
Habori thinks that anybody interested in up-cycled furniture design is another tool in the earth’s arsenal working for good. Always on the look out for passion, Khashab Designs is also a creative endeavor, inviting designers to collaborate and sell their creations through Khashab, retaining due credit as designers.
Do you see eye to eye with this entrepreneur? Get in touch: miaser@khashab.me
Do you know any other projects that practice sustainable living in UAE? Tell us in the comments below.
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