Sky Dome: 3D-Printed Mud Domes Hover Over Rubble Stone Rooms in a Syrian Courtyard

Mud is one of the oldest building materials in the region, and the dome is one of its oldest forms. Sky Dome bets that both can come back through a robotic nozzle. Its petal-like shells do not sit on the ground like their ancestors. They hover above low rubble stone walls, close enough to shade the rooms and far enough apart to let the sky show through the gaps.

Sky Dome was designed by Mohamed Abdellatif (team leader), Melike İnce and Eda nur Subaşı for a site in Syria. The project was named Winner at Echo of Civilization. Its one-line statement, "We are all one under the dome of sky", sets the ambition: a shared roof that belongs to everyone who gathers beneath it.

A Red Line That Threads the Courtyard Into the Block

Seen from above, the domes are only half the story. A bright red pedestrian path turns sharp corners through the courtyard, running between white rooftops, palms and trees before it bends back toward the street. It reads less like a decorative ribbon and more like a circulation diagram drawn straight onto the city, tying the domed cluster to the buildings around it rather than isolating it as an object.

The oblique aerial makes the scale clear. The dome cluster is compact, tucked against a larger white volume, while the open paved ground in front of it holds a small crowd. The architecture is modest in footprint; the public space it activates is much larger.

Five Layers, Each With a Different Job

The exploded axonometric is the most honest drawing in the set, because it separates everything the scheme asks the site to do. At the top sit the 3D-printed mud domes. Below them, a ring of pedestrian paths links urban rooms and ateliers. Then come glass walls, then the rubble rooms at ground level. To one side, a bazaar with vaulted ceilings and a playground occupy their own plots.

Pulled apart like this, the logic is legible: old stone at the base, new printed earth on top, glass as a neutral membrane in between. It also shows how many systems are stacked onto one small courtyard, a point the jury would pick up on.

Shells That Open in Summer and Close in Winter

The two sections push the domes beyond silhouette. Hand-drawn notes over the first section mark rainwater recycling and ventilation, with hot air rising out through the shells and cool air drawn in below. The second section labels the shells as a mud house dome and distinguishes between a closed dome for winter and an open dome for summer, suggesting a roof that adjusts to the season rather than a fixed sculpture.

The same drawings show the red bridge extending from the roof level into a neighbouring building, where figures sit at tables. The domes sit on a thin deck above the ground rooms, so the bridge lands at the height of that upper route, not at street level.

Rough Stone Below, Folded Earth Above

The strongest moments happen at eye level. Rubble stone walls with arched openings form small rooms, some open to the sky, with an exterior stair climbing to the upper path. Overhead, the copper-toned domes cluster like a crown, their rippled surfaces catching light in a way the stone below does not.

Step inside and the canopy changes character. From beneath, the shells read as folded petals, deep and shadowed, hanging over a hooded figure in a narrow passage between stone walls. Slim vertical frames sit against the stonework, hinting at where glass meets ruin. This contrast of heavy, irregular masonry and a soft, continuous ceiling is the project at its most persuasive.

When the Supporting Cast Competes With the Dome

Around the domed core, the scheme keeps adding: a stair, bridges, a lawn courtyard with a young tree, a round planter bench and a vaulted canopy at the edge. Each element is reasonable alone, yet together they crowd the central gesture. Baerbel Mueller, who judged Echo of Civilization, praised the core idea while naming exactly this tension, along with the absence of a structural concept for how the shells actually stand.

The aim to translated an ancient typology and building technique to the 21st century is beautiful. The dome typology and the idea to work with mud 3D printing is strong and convincing. Nevertheless, a structural concept is missing and the overall design proposal would need to be "cleaned up" as there is too much in addition to the iconic dome(s), formally competing with it and the gesture.Baerbel Mueller, Associate Professor / Mag.arch / Head / Owner, [applied] Foreign Affairs, University of Applied Arts Vienna ; nav_s baerbel mueller, Austria

Her critique is fair, and the renders support it. The courtyard view is pleasant, but the scalloped roofline is at its most powerful where nothing else is asking for attention. The dome over the rubble rooms does not need much help.

Why This Project Matters

Sky Dome takes a clear position: an ancient typology does not have to be preserved behind glass or rebuilt by hand to stay relevant. Pairing the mud dome with 3D printing and setting it over rubble stone rooms turns heritage into a working construction method, with seasonal opening, ventilation and rainwater collection written into the roof itself.

Its weaknesses are as instructive as its strengths. The jury's call for a structural concept and a cleaner composition points to the next step for any project of this kind: let the iconic form carry the idea, then prove it can stand. Under that discipline, a single shared dome over a Syrian courtyard could say everything the project's motto promises.

View the Full Project

Project team

Designers: Mohamed Abdellatif, Melike İnce, Eda nur Subaşı

Competition and award

Winner, Echo of Civilization

Jury

Baerbel Mueller, Associate Professor / Mag.arch / Head / Owner, [applied] Foreign Affairs, University of Applied Arts Vienna ; nav_s baerbel mueller, Austria

Location

Syria

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