Samer Ibrahim, an Architecture student at Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) was exclusively selected, as the only participating Lebanese student, to showcase his project “Beirut Urban Utopia” in the 2021 edition of the MENA Grad Show.
“The Global Grad Show, an initiative by the Art Dubai Group, is a programme for graduates in universities across the world whose research and ideas offer solutions to help solve major social and environmental issues.” Being an annual event, it has become the world’s largest gathering of academic institutions and, to-date, has exhibited over 900 projects from over 300 universities.
This year, the Global Grad show hosted 56 universities from the MENA region that were represented by students addressing global issues through their social impact innovations. The themes of the selected projects were sustainability, innovation and diversity.
Samer’s senior project “Beirut Urban Utopia”, submitted in spring 2021, addresses current difficulties in the cities of Lebanon. For example, how the lessening of green space and agricultural areas forced by urbanization is leading to a rift between man and nature. Through this project, Samer aimed at reconsidering the existing urban fabric and reintroducing farming and greenery into the cities. His project direction was biophilia (love of nature) where he applied biophilic design tools.
With an academic direction from the Department of Architecture in the Ramez G. Chagoury Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design (RC-FAAD), Samer received the finest academic support in each phase of the project.
You can watch the full video animation for “Beirut Urban Utopia” here.