Amman Design Week opens to the public tomorrow for its first edition since 2019. Running until 17 October, the programme brings together 220 designers, makers and innovators across 59 participating spaces, with exhibitions, workshops, talks and public installations extending from the capital to Aqaba.
Its theme, Accumulations, gives the seven-year interval a useful context. Design continued in studios, classrooms and workshops while the event was away, this edition considers how that work develops through repeated experiments, inherited skills and the materials available to hand.
The Hangar in Ras El Ain is a starting point. Built in the 1930s to house electricity generators, it will present work by more than 90 designers in an exhibition curated by Faysal Tabbarah, examining how daily habits, environments and cultural memories shape the objects people make and keep. Outside, projects in Ras El Ain Park extend those questions into places to sit, gather and spend time.
In Jabal Al Lweibdeh, expect interventions around Ash Shariah College Street and Paris Square, alongside programmes at Darat Abu Adnan. The restored 1950s house becomes a setting for discussions about domestic life, making and consumption. Its garage will host Accumulations On Air, a publishing studio reporting on the event as it unfolds.
There is also work developed through a joint residency with Ithra Design Week, pairing designers from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and a student exhibition presenting projects by 42 young participants. Aqaba joins the programme for the first time, with an exhibition, workshops and public events at WUJŨD in Ayla Oasis.
And it does not end there: four permanent public works, three in Ras El Ain and one in Jabal Al Lweibdeh will remain after the event ends. Their longevity will give Amman Design Week a life beyond its closing date, becoming part of the spaces residents use every day.
Exhibitions and programmes are free and open to the public; visitors should check the online schedule for activities requiring registration.
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