Dima Srouji
For her project Hollow Forms, architect Dima Srouji worked with father-and-son glassblowers Ali and Marwan Twam in the village of Jaba, who she met through the Ramallah-based organisation Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation, which rehabilitates and reactivates historic villages. The handblown vessels, designed using architectural software, nod to the seeds, plants and animals of the landscape, including the spiny cactus fruit. Through her research, she discovered that Palestinian glassblowing traditions date back thousands of years, nurtured by the silica-rich river sand. ‘Even Palestinians are not really aware how deep our rootedness with glass goes,’ she says.