Until recently, regional inhabitants lived in harmony with the environment. However, the drastic changes of urbanisation also precipitated a new challenge that was hitherto of no concern – keeping sand out of domestic spaces. The environment didn’t change, but the attitude towards it did, and this most abundant element suddenly became a nuisance. Now, people are constantly working to physically isolate themselves from their surroundings, giving rise to a more intangible disconnection. Zea aims to bring sand back into the home and to inculcate a rooted and reverent sense of the past.

By combining contemporary methods of rapid prototyping and parametric CAD technologies with century-old crafting techniques, Zea is an interactive lighting element that brings a humble echo of what was into daily life.

A desert aquarium, Zea is a window into a forgotten world, allowing users to engage visually with what was once theirs. Interaction with Zea causes desert sand to slowly ebb back and forth, alternately and progressively exposing or covering a light source filtered through a repurposed mashrabiya. Reminiscent of a bedouin fire in its dynamic shifting luminescence, the interaction between movement, sand and the user directly influences how much light fills the space. In a never-ending dance between light and sand, Zea’s aesthetic continuously shifts. Every interaction engenders a new visual configuration – from the focussed primacy given to each detail of each grain of sand as they alter and accumulate, to a more panoramic perspective on the overall composition.

Zea is a microcosm of the environment and the past.

Zea also harks back to traditional construction and domestic spaces through its base of hand-crafted Fujairah stone. Once a common material in construction, Fujairah stone is extremely dense and has since been replaced with easier to use cement blocks – ubiquitous and lacking character, these newer materials are void of dialogue with the environment.

The materials and structure of Zea instil a tangible and rooted sense of place, an authenticity that belongs to the past, but which resonates with timelessness. The past is made current through deft and dynamic material interaction of stone, sand, brushed stainless steel, light and time.