Amman Design Week, The Movement of Design In Jordan

Dana Ghzawnah

7 years ago

Amman Design Week is keeping up with the movement we’re all living through art and design. The best way to put it, ‘Design Moves Life Moves Design.’ It’s an annual immersive experience in Amman, Jordan, highlighting local and regional design and culture supported by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. Focusing on creating a forum for learning, exchange, and collaboration, this platform empowers designers through its comprehensive program of large-scale curated exhibitions, workshops, talks, and events.

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah met on Sunday with the Amman Design Week 2017 (ADW) team.

“Amman Design Week embodies the active spirit of a movement – one that gains momentum with the participation of many, and serves to empower people to take control, make an impact, and rise up to challenge the status quo. With the evolution of technology, science, and crafts, designers contribute new solutions that define how communities and individuals can advance society through conscious design. Design moves life, and life moves design.” ADW Team

This year’s event highlights include The Hangar Exhibition, curated by Ahmad Humeid. It presents work by local and regional designers in response to the theme of ‘movement’, whether physical, intellectual, cultural, or social. It will explore ideas of locality and showcase work by designers who challenge the understanding of design and its ability to push the boundaries of material, scale, form, and function.

It also includes The Crafts District. This series brings audiences closer to the heart of crafts in a learning experience that blends tangible and intangible heritage, design, and technique, highlighting the dying crafts and stories.

Carpet Weaving at The Crafts District, Amman Design Week.

Another special highlight is Mouneh: The Art of Preservation, curated by Shermine Sawalha. Amman Design Week’s curated food program explores the art of preservation, taking visitors on a journey through the history and heritage of food preservation methods. This year at Amman Design Week, ‘Mouneh’ features people who work in food production and preservation.

Each entity provides tastings and samplings in addition to a selection of their products for sale, with a closer look at the preservation methods and the processes that are still embedded in our region’s history and tradition.

In September 2016, Amman Design Week kicked off a MakerSpace at the Jordan Museum as one of its main exhibitions where people gathered in the spirit of making, sharing knowledge, techniques, resources, and skills. Amman Design Week 2017’s Mobile MakerSpace also traveled across Jordan, engaging public school students in workshops, pop-up events and demonstration sessions revolving around crafts and making, environmental sustainability, digital fabrication, and robotics.

Giving students across the Kingdom a platform to show their work, Amman Design Week started Student Exhibition. Leading up to the exhibition, selected students took part in a mentorship program, where they worked one-on-one with design specialists and experts to develop their ideas into tangible design works.

Amman Design Week 2016 workshops and talks

Amman Design Week also offers opportunities for other students in the form of job placements, internship, and volunteer opportunities.

From October 6 to 14 2017, The second edition of the nine-day celebration will take place. Mark your calendar and enjoy the special movement of design in Amman!