Erez Nevi Pana

Giving salt a new status

Department: Contextual Design

Recrystallising the Desert

Every year 20 million tons of salt sink to the bottom of the Dead Sea’s fifth pond. The salt is waste from the colossal production of potash and bromine in the Dead Sea Works factory. The salt piles up on the bottom, causing rising water levels. As a result, the hotels on the shore face flooding and collapse. This led Erez Nevi Pana to contemplate what might be done with the salt. Would it be possible to use the abundant residual salt of the Dead Sea factory as an economically viable resource? Could it produce materials or objects suitable for the marketplace? Recrystallising the Desert examines the development of a production method with NaCl as the main substance. It is a proposal to make salt desirable again. Through heating and layering, a solid mass of pure salt can be made, forming the basis for the production of salt tiles for the expanding hotel industry in this area.