Work Samples
A theme-based overview of recent professional and academic explorations: a selection of projects, publications, and students’ work.
RESPONSIVE CITIES
RESPONSIVE CITIES
Data-driven urban interventions exploring AI, IoT, and real-time mapping in tandem with nature-based solutions.
The following projects were realized as part of the Transversal Studio taught by Joanne Hayek and Mirko Daneluzzo at DIDI in the Spring 2023, which invited students to intervene on the city of Dubai under the theme of Air. They have been selected to be exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, in September 2023.
Batree
Designing custom-made piezoelectric systems attached to the leaves of palm trees to convert micro-wind into energy; a concept stemming from machine-learning analysis of leaf movements in relation to wind patterns.
A project by students Aaliyah Mohammed, Areeba Shahid, Rand Kachlan, Suad Alfardan, and Ayesha Taher, realized as part of the Transversal Studio taught by Joanne Hayek and Mirko Daneluzzo at DIDI in the Spring 2023, with the support of the DIDI Future City Lab.
Airsense
Measuring and mapping air quality in Dubai, in view of proposing methods to clean the outdoor air while activating pockets of public space in the city.
A project by students Aaliyah Mohammed, Areeba Shahid, Kaya Tueni, Rand Kachlan, and Shamma Al Shamsi, realized as part of the Transversal Studio taught by Joanne Hayek and Mirko Daneluzzo at DIDI in the Spring 2023, with the support of the DIDI Future City Lab.
Purifying Cities,
Activating Communities
Hacking Heat
Measuring and computing the amount of heat generated by the AC exhausts in Dubai, in view of proposing methods to repurpose it as a source of energy.
A project by student Ahmad Saleh, realized as part of the Transversal Studio taught by Joanne Hayek and Mirko Daneluzzo at DIDI in the Spring 2023, with the support of the DIDI Future City Lab.
Wandering Clouds
Autonomous nomadic mist vessels that clean the air. Exploring the use of ultrasonic waves to maximize the air cooling and purifying effect of moving water bodies in the city.
A project by students Anika Mahesh, Husain Dargharwala, and Latifa Alsuwaidi, realized as part of the Transversal Studio taught by Joanne Hayek and Mirko Daneluzzo at DIDI in the Spring 2023, with the support of the DIDI Future City Lab.
CO-PLANNING SYSTEMS
CO-PLANNING SYSTEMS
Promoting citizen engagement and participation in urban planning through interaction design and digital gamification.
Research presented at KDD ACM 2022, DIGICOM 2022, IJEPR 2022, and The Venice Biennale of Architecture 2021.
ShapeYourCity
Co-planning the future of Dubai through a tech-enabled interactive exhibition.
Presented at Dubai Design Week 2021, the ShapeYourCity installation engaged the visitors in an informative and playful journey to collectively shape the future of Dubai. Through a gamified web app, the visitors were invited to share insights and propose transformations to the future of their city’s mobility, landscape, zoning, and cultural preservation.
Conferences and Publications: DIGICOM 2022 and IJEPR 2022
Emerge Beirut
Collaborative user-generated mapping of Beirut’s ecosystem of change.
A pilot project that serves as an open interactive database allowing to track, quantify, and incentivize impactful collective actions. Designed and coded in the wake of the Beirut blast of August 2020, Emerge Beirut is a cross-sector data visualization tool aiming to enable agile and collaborative emergency response and planning mechanisms.
Presented at KDD ACM 2022.
Beirut Shifting Grounds
Beirut Shifting Grounds is a collaborative research project presented as part of the 'Co-habitat' exhibition at the 17th Venice Biennale of Architecture. It spanned over two years, simultaneously as Beirut was going downhill with the collapse of its economy, pandemic outbreak, and finally the Beirut Port explosion. This very same period was ripe with unprecedented activism, collective self-organization, and bottom-up mobilization in the face of the pervading adversity.
Mapping Series: ‘Pulsing Grounds’ and ‘Immuno-responsive City’
DESIGN THROUGH CODE
DESIGN THROUGH CODE
Exploring web development as a data visualization tool. Advocating for an intrinsic link between information design and programming literacy.
Selection of students’ works realized as part of the Digital Makers course and Generative Drawings workshop taught by Joanne Hayek at DIDI.
Presented at the Communicating Complexity Conference, 2CO 2022.
Global Refuge
A data visualization of human migration. Depicting the treacherous journey refugees take to find safety by visualizing the data published by the UNHCR.
Developed by student Shahzaadee Valli as part of the Digital Makers workshop taught by Joanne Hayek at DIDI.
Astraea
A digital narrative that pays tribute to women through their achievements over the years. The webpage maps women’s accomplishments in different industries as appearing in Wikipedia’s data and visualizes the connections between one woman and another. Those connections, appearing as constellations, depict the network of support and interaction between women.
Designed and developed by students Asma Alsafran and Rutvi Bapat as part of the Digital Makers workshop taught by Joanne Hayek at DIDI.
Generative Drawings
Exploring the fundamentals of programming through the creation of digital art.
Visuals coded by student Leen Ghosheh as part of the ‘Generative Drawings’ workshop module taught by Joanne Hayek at DIDI.
MATERIAL REMEDIATION
MATERIAL REMEDIATION
Exploring methods to convert discarded materials into new products by merging traditional craftsmanship with digital fabrication.
Waste-to-luxury projects by my fashion brand Vanina, distributed internationally through showroom participation at Paris Fashion Week and presented at the Sustainable Innovation 2023 Conference and the Global Fashion Conference 2022.
Délicatesse
Repurposing non-recyclable food packets into evening bags through parametric handwoven origami.
Eco-luxury collection by Vanina for Net-A-Porter.
The Light of Beirut
A capsule collection handcrafted with the glass of Vanina’s atelier, shattered by the 4th of August explosion.
“A tribute to our dear Beirut.
To its people, its streets, its houses, its life, its beauty, its heritage, its energy, its light, its hope.”
Vanina, Beirut, November 2020
Les Eternelles
Sustainable handbags crafted using discarded plastic.
Eco-luxury project by Vanina.
Still Life
Zero-waste transformation of non-biodegradable plastic bags into jewelry.
Eco-luxury project by Vanina.
DIGITAL & ROBOTIC FABRICATION
DIGITAL & ROBOTIC FABRICATION
Hacking emerging fabrication tools to enable resource-efficient manufacturing and construction techniques.
One Grain at a Time
Customizing the end-effector of a Kuka robotic arm to articulate 3D surfaces with desert sand.
Presented as part of the 2021 Dubai Design Week. Realized at DIDI in collaboration with Raffi Tchakerian and Sarkis Hajeyan.
Leaves
Transforming used paper into jewelry through water-based 3D printing.
Eco-luxury project by Vanina.
RESPONSIVE SKINS
RESPONSIVE SKINS
Applying principles of biomimicry and generative design to create responsive facades and fabrics.
New Territories
Learning from natural patterns, material behaviors, and traditional crafts, the course invites students to explore emerging digital fabrication tools and parametric design software to design performative architectural surfaces.
Taught by Joanne Hayek at AUB in 2017 and 2018.
Responsive Skins
Departing from a parametric exploration of the traditional patterns of Islamic art and Japanese kirigami, the workshop aimed to design, compute, and fabricate ‘Responsive Skins’: performative surfaces that allow for expansion, contraction, double curvature, auxetic systems and more.
Seminar taught by Joanne Hayek as part of the Material (In)formation Workshop — DIDI, Fall 2021
URBAN INTERVENTIONS
URBAN INTERVENTIONS
Intervening in the city through temporary installations activating public spaces and triggering communal dialogs.
Work featured in Domus.
Silence
— or how to build a radical new aesthetic that informs the field of unintentional sound, interpenetration, chance, and indeterminacy.
Investigating the noise pollution of Beirut through an architecture design studio conducted at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of the American University of Beirut (AUB, MSFEA, ArD) with 3rd and 4th year students — co-taught in Spring 2016 by Rana Haddad and Joanne Hayek. A Be Public initiative.
Radio Silence / تشويش
By students Betina Abi Habib, Zeina Bekhaazi, Souha BouMatar, Mario El Khouri, and Karen Madi.
In Between
/ بين و بين
By students Mira AL Jawahiry, Luzan AL Munayer, Mia Baraka, Ibrahim Kombarji, and Shada Mustafa.
Listen to Observe
/ سماع لفرجيك
By students Nadine Abdulsalam, Faisal Annab, Racha Doughman, Nadine Eid, and Lea Ramadan.
Tactile Fields
An interactive and reconfigurable installation activating urban space for meditation, relaxation, and atmospheric therapy.
Realized as part of the Fast-Pace Slow-Space Seminar at Columbia University.
Team: Rand Abdul Jabbar, Aisha Alsager, Susan Bopp, Justin Fabrikant, Rikki Frenkel, Joanne Hayek, Eleni-Ilektra Kontoroupi, Mark Pothier, Nicholas M Reiter and Jennifer Romeo.
Special Mention in the Architizer A+ Awards for the Architecture +Materials category.
PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS
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ACM KDD 2022
Learning from Post-Blast Beirut: Humanitarian Data-driven Mapping and Co-planning Efforts.
Piloting an agile data-visualization and co-planning tool.
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2CO 2022
Design through Code: Exploring Web Development as Data Visualization Tool
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SI 2022
Enabling Sustainable Innovation in Fashion through Crafted Material Remediation
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DIGICOM 2022
Promoting Citizen Engagement in Sustainable Planning through Installation Design and Digital Gamification
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GFC 2022
From Waste to Luxury: Fashion as Catalyst for Sustainable Development
