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In this commission by Petra National Trust, Arini challenged the traditional use of clay, a fundamental craft in the inherited cultural and artistic heritage of the Petra community, which PNT foregrounds in their youth-empowerment programs across that region.

The challenge was to present the material of clay in new innovative ways for the visitors to explore as part of their Journey Through Crafts ‘Rihlā fil Hiraf’, along the lines of the 2019 Crafts District’s curatorial vision that highlights the evolution and transformation of seemingly frozen notions of craftsmanship.

The final result mirrored the experience of walking through the Siq of Petra, in which one would find themselves slowed down by the sand underneath as they become immersed in the atmospheric quietness and the intimate path through the clay coins.

Commissioned by Amman Design Week and designed and built by Arini.

Dalieh – grapevine – is a free-flowing and kinetic canopy that stretches over Zain Cultural Space at Al Hussain Cultural Center. The suspended structure’s translucency, which alters depending on the viewing angle, enhances the sense of spatial ambiguity and acts as a protective layer to limit unwanted heat and glare.

Dalieh is composed of 10,300 pieces of bamboo strips that were discarded from the curtain industry. Dalieh was inspired by Alejandro Aravena’s approach in exhibiting scrap metal in the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Bamboo wooden strips are kindly provided by Zawayed
Construction site manager: Esam Jabi

Following Mapping Jabal Al Natheef, Arini launched Phase II of this project, which is dedicated to re-imagining a better environment to be adhered to the refugees’ minds through small-scale and self-driven physical interventions motivated by a need of local regeneration.

Curated and organized by Arini

Workshop leaders: ShamsArd Design Studio

Workshop contributor: Rand El Haj Hasan

Sponsor: Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East

Guests and speakers:

Samar Dudin - Regional Director of Ruwwad Altanmyeh.
Ruwwad’s social work and experience in Jabal Al Natheef.
Lecture by Dr. Myriam Ababsa from IFPO where she presented her in- depth research on housing statistics, housing strategies in Jordan and some past projects supported by the Government.
Eng. Kamal Jalouqa on informal housing in Jordan and related examples from around the world.
Al Amin Kably, urban planner. (via Skype from USA) 
Flexibility in the planning informal areas.
Kamel Dorai from IFPO
Current research in Zaatari camp and the domestic strategies adopted by the refugees to enhance their temporary housing conditions. Throughout the lecture, Dorai draws on the similarity between Syrian refugees today and Palestinian refugees from 1947 and 1968.

In September 2015 the exploration of strategic design as an instrument engaging both material and social change materialized through Pilots for Strategic Change in Jabal Al Natheef Workshop; social scenarios were coupled with novel design proposals to develop physical interventions concerned with the everyday life of the camp residents. The workshop tackled the infrastructure and sustainability elements

Arini has curated a design workshop that focused on re-imagining an affordable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable neighborhood by using strategies that redefine and utilize infrastructure as mean to develop the area, this workshop tackled issues of urban sanitation, waste management, street condition and accessibility.

The architects of ShamsArd lead this workshop where they worked with the participants in two stages: five days were devoted to understanding the context of Jabal Al-Natheef and proposing solutions, followed by five days of implementation.

Participants were initially invited to learn about the context of Jabal al Natheef and meet with local residents. Scholars and local actors presented an overview of the area, while site visits and meetings with an array of the camp's population allowed for a deeper understanding of the physical and social fabric.

The first objective was to observe, listen, learn and empathize as much as we could in order to understand the community's intrinsic organization and needs and its relations with the local governing bodies.

Site visits allowed participants to employ their senses and record their experiences, without any personal judgments. These were translated into words, photos, sketches that opened up for preliminary brainstorming opportunities within the group.

Testimonies from a wide range of residents were as well an important contribution to the knowledge of the local context. Through which, participants were able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the community, understand what difficulties the members of the community are facing, learn how they are affecting their lives and understand how they are currently dealing with them. This initial immersion, with its physical, intellectual and emotional layers, set the grounds for discussions and exchange, resulting in a number of topics -that of safety, sanitation and quality of space- that would be the subjects of design.

With that, participants collectively developed ideas addressing the different topics. These were tested and evaluated following criteria related to the context and to sustainability, such as time and economical affordability; their ability to be replicable by the residents; their effectiveness; their cultural, social and geographical appropriateness and their durability.

Ideas were narrowed down to a number of small-scale and localized solutions, which with further input from the inhabitants and local governing bodies, were adjusted to their specific contexts.

Arini produced an in-depth study of the socio-spatial structures of the refugee camp’s built environment. Arini continued its investigation; throughout 2014 we carried out focus groups, discussions and meetings with the community.

Mapping Jabal Al Natheef project investigates and compiles data in the pursuit of interventions that are scenario and time based. Considering design as an open act of capacity building, we examine mapping processes as active agents of change. This presents a chance for us urbanists, architects, and designers to understand the spatial dynamics of a community —that evolved to become integrated into the economic activity and into their urban environment— consequently unlock its socio-economic opportunities.

This project introduces two phases of intensive investigation and extensive exploration.

In Phase I, which began in winter 2012, we carried focus groups, discussions and Mapping Jabal Al Natheef workshop —Autumn 2013—. At the end of this, we bring forward this publication to present the research the contributors and we have been working on. In Phase II, which begins the following winter, Arini team will continue its exploration of strategic design as an instrument engaging both material and social change; social scenarios will be coupled with novel design proposals to develop physical interventions concerned with the everyday life of the camp residents. The iterative methodologies focus on investigations of spatial, structural and material organisation, engaging in discourses of architecture and urbanism.

Approach

The project approach focused on dissecting one study strip into five areas and layers related to those areas:

Built Environment: What are the elements of the built environment, their condition and typologies?

Housing: What are the existing housing typologies?

Needs: What are the needs of the inhabitants of the area?

Socio-economic status: What is the condition of the inhabitants of the area

These five areas provided the framework around which the collected data was organized.

Methodology

Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used, and then employed critical analysis to review the data.

Qualitative: One-on-one process, posed questions directly to individuals of the community, the interviewers investigated the richness of emotions and impressions through multimedia recordings. Qualitative data were in the form of interviews, group discussions and observations.

Quantitative: Detailed social questionnaires distributed to a sample of 50 inhabitants of the area.

Critical Analysis: Both research techniques were followed by a critical analysis of the data, where we reflected on the generated information to come up with patterns, urban indicators, and relationships in order to develop conclusions.

This project was made possible by the brilliant 29 participants from multidisciplinary backgrounds we had on board; architectsurban plannerscurators we had on board.

Angel Jirkisian
Hadeel Mohmad
Haitham Kurdi
Hiba Jarar
Khaled Ali
Lana Salameh
Lina Ghanem
Luai Kurdi
Mayassa Al Damerji
Mohamamd Mango
Mohammad Naji
Nadin Sh Yassin
Namariq Al Rawi
Nida Mouhsin
Nizar Taha
Noura Al Khasawneh
Nujud Ashour
Nure Shammout
Ola Kaka
Rand Al Haj Hassan
Raslan Hawi
Sally Odeh
Sara Nowar
Shada Qahoush
Sofeen Salameh
Sonia Nimri
Tara Yamak
Zeid Madi
Zeina Al Thawabteh

Set within the winding pathway between Al Hussein Cultural Center and Greater Amman Municipality MADAFA pavilion was developed for Amman Design Week 2016 to enhance the surrounding landscape and envisioned for being a spot of exposition.

The pavilion is a modern interpretation of the Madafa, a traditional Jordanian space that is built to entertain, host and feed the guests during their visits. The rich narrative of the Madafa inevitably encouraged users to explore parallels with contemporary architecture as it was created as place of gathering through hosting a series of cultural events and live music.

In all its parts, MADAFA encompassed a multi-layered sensorial experience, a welcoming place to rest, a place that allowed visitors to indulge in exclusively designed food, specialty dishes and gourmet snacks developed with food professionals and served in distinctive tray prototypes.

Encompassed within the MADAFA, three shipping containers were repurposed within the promenade to host a set of local restaurants and cafes. Standing free with all their sides visible, the containers are an integral part of a steel grid modular enclosure. Creating a presence in the pathway that changes as you move around it and through it, the pavilion became a scene set against the backdrop of Amman’s mountains

The grid modular system enclosure was built using weathered steel tubes and joints. The solution was implemented to showcase the beautiful backdrop which is the complex and layered mountains of Amman. The modular system also permitted the pavilion to be permeable while creating a definition for the space. The structure was made of 7 tons of steel, 1,020 steel cubes and 21,000 washers and screws. The pavilion was built in 6 days due to the special nature of the location.

Lightning and shadow played major part in the experiencing of MADAFA. At night visitors moved throughout the space as it fades into darkness due to the washed lighting effect which illuminated the lower surfaces. During the day, visitors enjoyed the dramatic and transformative play of shadows as the sun rendered different architectural patterns throughout the day.

Arini's approach to successful activism in design and urban development projects has enabled more than 30 economically vulnerable and marginalized youths and workers from different communities and tradespeople dwelling in the Downtown area while constructing MADAFA.

Rasem Kamal, an architect and a Fulbright fellow with a Master's degree in Architecture from the Rice School of Architecture. Kamal is currently working at the Basel studio of Oppenheim Architecture. Prior to that, he worked with several regional and international architectural firms including Symbiosis Designs, SOM and AS.Architecture-Studio in Paris.

Saja Nashashibi, Managing Partner and Principal Architect of Paradigm Design House, a collaboration of talented architects and designers whose main aim is to transform creative potentials brought by design opportunities into reality and the team works with clients through an integrated approach affecting the environment, local economies and community.

In collaboration with Alãan, the workshop focused on furniture design; Designers re-imagined traditional furniture items to give a new life to the traditional function and form, addressing the relationships between function, form, material, texture, and feeling by thinking about one key question “How would we do it now?"

The workshop will take a second look at materials that have fallen out of utility in favor of modern alternatives. During the course of this hands-on workshop participants will be challenged to reimagine how traditional materials can be modified to fit a more contemporary lifestyle.

A Dubai Design Week initiative, Abwab, meaning “doors” in Arabic, is a series of six architectural pavilions that showcase the work of the most exciting designers, studios and curators from six different countries in the Middle East and the near region. Inspired by the imagination that drives childhood play, the Jordan pavilion draws on the swing, or ‘murjeiha’ to evoke memories of its designers’ childhood. With the help of accelormeters and Arduinos, the team introduced interaction design that allows one to generate and activate the present surroundings while challenging gravity. The simple swinging motion converts into a visual and audible translation, the designers said in a release.

With play and imagination in mind, Jordan’s designers are drawing on the swing, or ‘murjeiha’, to represent their collective childhood. Paradoxes form the base their new design of the swing ‘murjeiha’: Imagination versus reality; cradle versus stand still; mental versus physical power; visibility versus invisibility; unfurling versus weaving; and finally, mindfulness versus mindlessness.

Prevalent in Jordan is the release into air, as playtime regularly involves kite-flying and swinging high. Whether the altitudes of Amman’s hilltops inspire the seeking of new heights, or that the country’s natural air being crisp and cool year round asks to be sliced– the untitled swing project summons flight through the memory of Jordanian pastime.

When it was playtime, the game that everybody knew how to play was our very own imagination. Imagination fueled us with the limitless abilities to create new worlds, change our environments and explore alternative realities.

The magnifying and augmentative powers that took simple or mundane things from around us to transform them into objects and situations far more than what they are, it was so easy for us to live alternative realities where we're gymnasts with a little stolen flour from home, enjoy a delicacy made completely out of mud or grabbing a mattress to become our speedy slide down the stairs.

Our brains got used to it, we mastered the art of imagination and it all almost became a constant process of weaving our imaginations however we wished to see further and beyond of what is it that lies in our tangible realities and right before our eyes.

It was bound to happen that for all of us to revert back and tread down our childhood memory lanes. But our questions soon rid themselves of nostalgia and yearning to try and understand what armed us with such power and liberty, whether from hiding and seeking to jumping, swinging and defying gravity? What is this ultimate liberation and also power we had that we wholeheartedly believe we do not own anymore? And the answers came as short bursts justifying that this is life, growth or rather being a grown up.

With this extreme shift that took place as we were growing up, we had to re-accustom ourselves to not be fascinated anymore and our readiness to play and be infatuated were re-adjusted to Þt fast-moving realities and the chase behind making ends meet, so what would jolt us back into the power, liberty and imagination we had before? Our answer started becoming clearer and clearer, and we aimed to try and bring in several experiences, weave them together for anyone experiencing it to enjoy a short, yet sweet, trip into the imaginations we all had as children.

As we set out to look for what is it that brings game & play all powered by imagination the ultimate power and liberty that comes with it, our discourse have, healthily, explored several routes.

About Mapping Jabal Al Natheef

This project is inspired by the challenges of the accelerated increase of urban sprawls and the consequential urban segregation of contemporary Amman. The breadth of this project delves into the living conditions that this area creates and the feasible ways in which its problems can be addressed through the regeneration of its spaces. Mapping Jabal Al Natheef is the first chapter of a multi-disciplinary regeneration and uplifting project.

The Mapping Jabal Alnadeef workshop aims to pose relevant questions and provide tools that can be of use to a discussion on Jabal Alnadeef’s possible futures. In an initial phase, a selected part of Jabal Alnadeef will be mapped at the level of detailed resolution of the Rossi Map. Subsequent phases will engage and map quotidian routines, events, and environmental parameters, registering their mutual interrelationships, overlaid over the rigorous map of physical enclosure generated in phase 1.

We were overwhelmed by the participants that joined us today. Everyone gathered and got introduced. The workshop commenced by Arini giving a presentation about the project and a thorough history about Jabal Al Nathef, followed by an introduction about Christoph Lueder and Alexandru Malaescu from Kingston University, London. After that we plugged into Ruwwad’s Dardachat discussing issues like identity, place and belonging.

After the lunch break, we started a 4 hour long brainstorming session which ended in an identification of core issues and interview strategies for next day’s tour.

Christoph introduced the concept of critical friends. which will have a conversation with the participants on our “Mapping Jabal Alnatheef” project, helping us through their expertise in specific areas to place our work in a global context.

Christian Schmid, ETH Zurich – conversation on the basis of Studio

Basel report on Havana (on reading list), total urbanization of landscape

Adrian Lahoud, Urbanism, UCL London – conversation on Tripoli, Beirut, Amman, post traumatic urbanism

Douglas Spencer, Landscape Urbanism, AA London – urbanization of landscape

Bob Brown, Plymouth University - conversation on overseas live projects

Ed Wall, University of Greenwhich - conversation on informal urbanism

Siobhan Campbell, Irish poet and researcher on stories of conflict, Kingston University - conversation on story catching and conflict

Joseph Deane, architect, London School of Architecture - on the basis of drawing he will send, narrative of movement and encounters.

After that the groups went to the site again with survey, covering a larger number of houses to get more info and documenting floor plans and stairs and entrances typologies.

Samar Dudin – Regional Director of Ruwwad – came in today for another discussion with the participants to hear their thoughts and feedback about Jabal Al Natheef.

Participants talked about the deteriorating physical layer in the camp area and the poor infra structure. The participants shared funny and gloomy storied about their interactions with the residents. We discussed what our next move “physical intervention” i and all the obstacles we might face.

One of the conclusions was that the physical layer is the background of all the social problems and conflicts of the Camp. We have to address the social intangible layer to reach a solid intervention in the physical aspect.

In countries and cultures around the world, informal settlements, low serviced neighborhoods and refugee camps face problems resulting from inadequate infrastructure, public services, and deficiencies in their spatial organisation.

They also face a choice between differing strategies for regeneration and upgrading which negotiate between the need for renewal versus the attachment to spaces that have been lived in and developed over generations. In respecting those social and spatial cultures, and in arguing for proposals that are sensitive towards these issues, mapping strategies play a pivotal role.

In collaboration with

Christoph Lueder (Kingston University, London)
Alexandru Malaescu (Kingston University, London)
Uhoud Kamal (German Jordanian University, Amman)
Samar Dudin (Ruwwad, Amman)
Ruwwad’s volunteers and youth.

Community partner: Ruwwad | رواد التنمية

Sponsors:

Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East
Aramex

Academic partner: German Jordanian University

SīK

for Amman Design Week 2019

Rêverie Retail Shop 2019

for Reverie Clothes Boutique

Mtjr shop

The official gift shop for The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.

Mtjr -متجر

Dalieh, the Kinetic Canopy for Amman Design Week 2017

Concept Note

Pilots for Strategic Change in Jabal Al Natheef Workshop

The project’s strategic framework established a set of interventions designed to achieve a more habitable and sustainable neighborhood in the near term.

Methodology

The main goal and hope is that these acupuncture interventions, part of a larger test and trial design approach, will help make a difference in improving some of the resident’s basic needs, and ultimately ripple to other parts of the camp.

Click here for Mapping Jabal Al Natheef publication

Mapping Jabal Al Natheef Publication

Approach and Methodology

The full publication on Issuu:

Approach

Methodology

Contributors

Closing Event at German Jordan University, darat othman bdeir

Sponsors

This project was made possible by a generous contribution by the following organizations:

Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East

Aramex

Madafa the Food and Culture Pavilion

About the designers

About Amman Design Week

RE-THINKING THE TRADITIONAL Furniture Design, led by Suliman Innab and Hamza Omari

Event posters

Alāan Artspace

Follow Arini on Instagram

Collaborators

Participants

The Untitled Swing Project

Construction Time lapses

The swings are now permanently exhibited at Dubai Design District

Description

Day 01 (12/10/2013)

Day 02 (13/10/2013)

Day 03 (14/10/2013)

Day 04 (16/10/2013)

Day 05 (17/10/2013)

Day 06 (18/10/2013)

Day 07 (19/10/2013)

Day 08 (20/10/2013)

Day 09 (21/10/2013)

Day 10 (22/10/2013)

The official gift shop for
The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.