Oskouei Studio's Bomb Cloud Sculpture Rises in Adobe Inside Abandoned Lisbon School

Key facts

• The Weight of the Soil is a large-scale installation by Saman & Sasan Oskouei, Iranian-born, Brooklyn-based artists.
• It is installed inside an abandoned school in Lisbon, Portugal, unused for approximately 15 years.
• Materials include adobe, soil, straw, sand, water, and wood; dimensions are 300 × 250 × 280 cm.
• The sculpture gives physical form to a bomb cloud, slowing a moment of destruction.
• Construction is in situ: a minimal wood structure covered with hand-built adobe layers forming irregular, cloud-like masses.
• The work focuses on the aftermath of explosion—dust settling, material hardening, destruction becoming landscape.
• Earth, traditionally associated with shelter and permanence, is used to depict destruction, creating a central contrast.
• The earthen construction connects the bomb cloud to the physical ground, making a fleeting image into a lasting spatial presence.
• The abandoned school's worn architecture, tiled walls, damaged ceiling, and traces of former use become part of the installation.
• The project was submitted via designboom's DIY submissions feature and edited by Christina Vergopoulou.