Bricklab For millennia, humans have defined the limits of their settlements by clearing, leveling, and reclaiming land for habitation. Hence, the ground condition becomes a political tool that differentiates social hierarchies such as public/ private, sacred/profane, or upper/lower-class. In the 1970’s, the mayor of Jeddah, M.S. Farsi, led an ambitious project to reclaim over 30 km of the Red Sea coast and develop it as a public waterfront. His project was conceived at a time when urban sprawl had left the majority of the city’s shoreline accessible only to an affluent few. By spilling a layer of silicone over portions of the ‘corniche’, this project samples the epidermis of this major public project to capture traces of habitation and allow the visitor to shift their focus on the politics of this outer layer.