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Off the Gireed Cairo, 2011
Off the Gireed is a series of furniture pieces exploring the narratives of material, process, place, and cultural context embedded in the ubiquitous palm fiber crate in Egypt, as it is re-contextualized innovatively to create fresh meanings, uses, and significations. Traditionally, Egyptian architecture and furniture utilized various parts of the date palm tree. In ancient Egypt, where wood was scarce, the date palm provided a crucial alternative. Ancient Egyptians used the midribs and other parts of the tree for constructing homes, making furniture, and crafting everyday items like crates, baskets, and mats. The pruning process of date palms involves removing the midribs, which, if not utilized for crates and furniture, would otherwise be burned by farmers. Working with the midrib is, therefore, environmentally friendly and uses a renewable resource that has been integral to Egyptian culture and economy for centuries.  

The palm-fiber crate, made from these midribs, has long been a prevalent and versatile container in Egypt. It appears frequently in nineteenth-century depictions of markets and remains common in modern Cairo. It serves various purposes, including as fruit and vegetable crate, birdcage, chicken coop, display table, storage vessel, and transportation basket. Beyond its practical uses, the crate embodies rich cultural histories and meanings. The artisanal craft of palm crate making is labor-intensive and slow, requiring intricate body movements that translate into linear grids. Each handmade crate is unique, reflecting a wabi-sabi aesthetic of imperfection, transience, and incompleteness. However, due to changing economic patterns, increased labor costs, and a scarcity of skilled artisans, palm-crate making has diminished, giving way to plastic crates. Off the Gireed reinterprets and reuses the traditional palm fiber crate by combining it with other materials to make a new series of furniture pieces. In so doing, the project reinvigorates the artisanal craft of palm crate making. The resulting products question what has been lost in the age of mass production, over-consumption, and disposability, while allowing palm fiber (gireed) to be seen anew as a material of beauty and significance.


The development of this product design line was generously supported by a British Council grant for artists and an MITEF grant. The product line received a Red Dot and Green Design awards.
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