TerraPods eco-design makerspace
TerraPods is an eco-design makerspace, art residency and agroecology farm. The land offers creators the access to rural safe space in communion with nature.
TerraPods is growing a 5,000m2 biodiverse food forest, medicine and dye garden, alongside a community kitchen producing seasonal Mouneh (naturally preserved food) from the farmstead community, while simultaneously supporting local livelihoods and the heritage traditions. The regenerative produce will be sold in the local village and through our community supported agriculture membership.
Two studios will host long and short-term art residents alongside an annual exhibition. Creators are equipped with maker-spaces "pods" to explore holistic local consumption and production alternatives. We invite the community to experiment with bio-grown materials and waste as a resource, enhanced with trainings to nurture craft and self-sufficiency. We also present growers and maker's products at our existing EcoSouk marketplace which is located in Beirut and online, to showcase and expand their income generation capacity locally and internationally.
TerraPods is actively investigating local raw materials alternatives. The three tracks of research combine with an art residency in a food forest to tackle adapting to our local ecology, minimising energy consumption, and using life friendly chemistry with no harmful by-products.
BioPod: Bio Material Research & Development- This pod explores the power of nature and its transformation cycles. Reflecting the possibilities to sustainably design in synergy with the land and plant-based matter. Re-imagining alternatives, we encourage creating nature based resins, solvents, binders, dyes, pigments and the abundance of cellulose as the building block against plastic productions. Equipped with dehydrator and bio-molds to produce bowls and plates using agriculture and food waste and transforming single use concepts with potatoes, apples, mycelium, seaweed into packaging and other materials.
CraftPod: Traditional craftsmanship and skill building - Our childlike intuition leads us into a multidisciplinary and endogenous pod, reconnecting with biomaterial and abundant organic resources, including fibres, dirt, flowers, nuts, fruits in combination with sewing, weaving, block printing, paper crafts, jewellery, ceramics, native medicines and the limitlessness of the creative spirit.
CigaCycle Pod: Waste as Resource - Here we are exploring decontaminating the cigarette filter and reusing its fibres with plastic shredders into installations, insulation, bricks and textile. In 2019, we launched the world's first stand up paddle board from 12,000 cigarette filters for in-sea clean ups with Paul Abbas, AUB Tobacco Free & the AUB Neighborhood Initiative and continue our research into down cycling and combining the materials to reduce extracting raw single use plastics while raising awareness on the need for single use plastics to be designed out of products from the start.
Terrapods is a programme of the NGO Recycle Lebanon, it is located in the rural village of Baskinta, Lebanon, on the foothills of Mount Sannine, 45km from Beirut, it will be open throughout Spring, Summer and Autumn seasons with the capacity to host workshops, trainings, residencies and incubate local eco-design product alternatives.
