Located at the edge of the desert, the Concrete Tent in Al Madam Ghost town is an experimental architectural preservation project that deals with the paradox of permanent temporariness. It is a hybrid between a mobile tent and a concrete house, temporariness and permanency, movement and stillness, soft and hard. Permanent temporariness is a condition of dislocation and relocation caused by political, economic and environmental changes, it tends to deprive people of the possibility to act and engage with the present. Either stuck in a nostalgic idea of a lost past or projected into and idealized future, the present seems inaccessible, and lives seems to be temporarily suspended.

Al Madam Ghost town, built in the 1970s, aimed to sedentarize and modernize the nomadic population of which lifestyle, still moving across newly established borders, was perceived in contrast with the formation of a new nation-state. Today these houses are abandoned and taken over by the dunes of the desert.

The Concrete Tent in Al Madam Ghost town is an act of experimental preservation where the modernist buildings are enveloped by yuta fabric used to construct tents. Here architectural preservation is understood not as an instrument for permanency but as a form to re-narrate the Concrete tent in Al Madam Ghost town as a permanent temporariness heritage site. Besides the modernist ruins, the new layer of yuta is reminiscent of both ancient forms of nomadic life and the present condition of permanent temporariness experienced by today ́s migrant population.

Over time, the Concrete Tent in Al Madam Ghost town, similar to the modernist buildings, will also be taken over by the dunes - an inevitable reminder of the beauty of impermanence.

In response to the ongoing atrocities in Palestine, the concrete tent was used as a space for collective mourning during the opening days of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Originally built in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem Palestine in 2015, the Concrete Tent in Al Madam Ghost Town is a space for collective mourning and solidarity with Palestine. While the  tent is the basic element for the construction of refugee camps, it is also used for collective gathering and funerals. It is the material manifestation of the temporary status of refugees in the camps yet also symbolises their right to return to their homes. The space was open for participants and visitors of the triennial, groups and individuals in need of mourning. Sandi and Alessandro welcomed people at the concrete tent for three days in the opening week, and at different points throughout the duration of the triennial. Participants were invited to share their experiences, emotions and stories if they wished or simply be toghether in silence.