Garlic House is a theOtherDada's Pilot Experimental Project.

As such, we are pursuing the most stringent environmental certification, the Living Building Challenge, which goes beyond LEED certification to introduce the idea of Regenerative Buildings, buildings that give back to the environment and enhance Biodiversity.

Given Lebanon's geographic location and water scarcity potential, tOD is particularly emphasizing on the Water Petal, performing detailed calculations and researches related to hydrology with Dr Nadim Farajallah and waste water treatment for re-use to target the Net Zero Water and Ecological Water Flow imperatives. Because of anticipated warnings of global warming due to increase of greenhouse gas emissions, tOD is also taking into consideration the Energy petal wherein the built environment relies on renewable forms of energy and operates in a pollution-free manner. Due to a lack of governmental incentives, the high cost of Photovoltaic Panels inhibits us from pursuing the Net Zero Energy petal, but this doesn't stop us from introducing a small PV array to meet the needs of external lighting and equipment. Another main challenge we are tackling is the Materials Petal, as we are exclusively specifying materials that have no toxicity whatsoever to the environment as well as human beings. Commonly used toxic materials such as PVC are replaced in our design by non-toxic alternatives.

GARLIC house is weekend retreat is located in a village called Thoum in Batroun, North of Lebanon and is about 120 m above sea level. It consists of a private family house (area=  80 square meters) and a guest and guard's house (area=  95 square meters)  located within a master plan (site= 7,000 sqm) which design and construction would be divided into two phases to allow for future expansion not exceeding 300 m2.

The project footprint is minimized and considered in a way not to hinder the existing biodiversity; furthermore, our intention is to set an exemplary residential project in Lebanon in terms of sustainable architecture, use of renewable energy resources, and water efficiency; consequently, promoting a symbiotic relationship between people and aspects of the built environment.

We are working with environmental consultants Eco Consulting, as well as with electromechanical engineering company OPUS specialized in sustainable solutions. IBSAR, a local association, has conducted a Biodiversity Survey on site at different times of the year, mapping the existing vegetation to assess its environmental value and help us determine which other vegetation species to introduce that have a low water consumption and would increase biodiversity on site, with no risk of undermining the existing vegetation.

We are now in the process of determining best practices for sensible construction and appropriate building materials, energy generation and most importantly water conservation and reuse given the limitations of these materials and appropriate legislation in Lebanon.