Episode 18: Adib Dada - theOtherDada
Adib Dada is a young Lebanese architect and founder of theOtherDada [tOD] Regenerative Consultancy & Architecture firm, which mission is - since 2010 - to activate sustainability and resilience thanks to projects across architecture, living systems, and art.
He is one of those professionals with a heartfelt environmental commitment. In our podcast, we talk about his various initiatives in Lebanon in a challenging moment for the country where the climate crisis and the urgent need for actions have to consider a complicated social and political situation. We explore his project Beirut RiverLESS, which aims to regenerate the deteriorated Beirut River. Beirut RiverLESS offers replicable interventions to rehabilitate lost ecosystems and improve the living conditions and quality of life of people in the city who live along the river, and restore the area's biodiversity. He explains the initiative, theOtherForest, an off-spring of the Beirut RiverLESS project. It is a nature-based tool for ecological and social regeneration in cities. He works closely together with the NGO Afforest to create native urban forest, with the intent to rewilding the city and reclaiming public space by collectively planting Miyawaki native forests in leftover lands.
We conclude with a glance on his built architecture, like the LANDFORMhouse project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Here he integrated many sustainable architectural solutions traditionally used to create a symbiotic relationship between nature and the built environment.
Our talk gives a great insight into the dynamics of engaging with communities to reclaim land and rights and how to be effective when actually there is no official help and when you have to deal with tight or even no budgets.
Adib Dada earned a BA in Architecture at the American University of Beirut - Lebanon, a Master's Degree in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU – USA, and completed the Biomimicry graduate certificate from the Biomimicry Institute and Arizona State University.
Based on Biomimicry thinking, tOD's work promotes a symbiotic relationship between nature and the built environment by exploring new ways of creating generous and regenerative buildings; in essence, developing creative solutions that positively impact the environment.
Adib has been recognized in Apollo Magazine's 40 Under 40 as a Patron of the Arts in the Middle East and was listed as one of GOOD Magazine's GOOD 100 for his project Beirut RiverLESS.
Adib Dada is a Fellow of the Middle East Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
If you want to know more about the Miyawaki method and AFFOREST please check here: https://www.afforestt.com/
theOtherDada:
