Amman Design Week

Amman Design Week (Arabic: أسبوع عمّان للتصميم) is a design biennale held in Amman, Jordan, co-founded in 2016 by Rana Beiruti and Abeer Seikaly through an initiative of Queen Rania Al Abdullah. It serves as a platform for learning and exchange, highlighting the works of local and regional designers across various disciplines such as architectural installations, furniture, fashion, product, and graphic design. The event celebrates design's potential to improve lives, foster community engagement, and enhance urban spaces, particularly in the region's context.

Background
Initially conceived to provide a platform for designers in Jordan and the region, Amman Design Week quickly established itself as a significant event in the design world. It aims to foster a regional conversation about design and its role in society, emphasising collaboration, innovation, and the exchange of ideas. As a cultural initiative, Amman Design Week's mission is to transform the city into a hub of creativity, showcasing its narratives, talents, and aspirations to a global audience. Adopting the name ‘Design Week’, it facilitates participation in a broader creative dialogue and nurtures a creative movement through a year-round program of learning activities, workshops, events, and exhibitions.

The inaugural edition in 2016 marked a milestone in the city's cultural landscape, grounded in the belief in design's potential for social impact. The initiative aims to support local talents, utilise local materials, offer learning programs, and facilitate connections through exhibitions, community initiatives, workshops, talks, and cultural events. With three editions taking place in 2016, 2017, and 2019, Amman Design Week enriched Amman's cultural fabric, uniting creatives from various disciplines and establishing Amman as a centre of design and cultural innovation in the region.

2016 Edition: Huna Al Tasmeem (This is Design)
In its inaugural year in 2016, under the theme "Huna Al Tasmeem", (English: This is Design; Arabic: هنا التصميم) Amman Design Week showcased the profound impact of design on everyday life and introduced design to Amman and vice versa. The event featured the Hangar Exhibition and the Crafts District, each highlighting different facets of design's role in society. The Hangar Exhibition, curated by Jordanian architect Sahel Al Hiyari, displayed experimental works by new-generation designers, emphasising the integration of traditional craftsmanship with contemporary techniques.

The Crafts District, curated by Jordanian architect Dina Haddadin and hosted at the abandoned Raghadan Tourist Terminal, was transformed into a social space dedicated to crafts, creating an immersive environment where visitors could explore pop-up shops, demonstration booths, and design installations, all while enjoying traditional cuisine. This experience intertwined cultural heritage with modern design practices, highlighting the importance of conscious design and community involvement in creating meaningful experiences. Concurrently, the MakerSpace at The Jordan Museum in Ras El Ain offered attendees insight into the evolution of innovation. Here, visitors interacted with digital fabrication tools such as 3D printers, audio-visual devices, and advanced robotics, illustrating the progression from traditional material manipulation to the forefront of technological innovation.

2017 Edition: Design Moves Life Moves Design
With the theme "Design Moves Life Moves Design", the second edition explored the role of design in addressing challenges such as mass migrations, technological advancements, and environmental issues. It included the Hangar Exhibition, the Crafts District, and a new Mobile MakerSpace, emphasising the mobility of design solutions and the exchange of ideas across Jordan. The Student Exhibition was introduced, encouraging participation from university and high-school students.

Amman Design Week's second edition featured several key components designed to embody and explore its themes' core concepts. The Hangar Exhibition, curated by Jordanian architect and designer Ahmad Humeid and hosted at Hangar Ras El Ain, showcased a range of works from experimental to practical designs, illustrating the broad spectrum of design's impact from individual to collective scales.

2019 Edition: Possibilities
The 2019 edition of Amman Design Week, themed "Possibilities," served as a profound exploration of design's capacity to shape the future amidst a backdrop of global challenges. This theme underscored design as a pivotal tool for speculative thinking and reimagining potential futures, addressing critical issues such as environmental sustainability, refugee crises, and food security. Encouraging designers to engage in a creative dialogue between reality and imagination, "Possibilities" aimed to challenge existing paradigms through innovative design solutions.

The third edition of Amman Design Week also featured "Future Food / Future City" at Al Hussein Cultural Center in Ras El Ain, focusing on the intersection of design with food production and urban living to envision sustainable futures. Material Innovation, showcased in the Kabariti Village, highlighted sustainable materials such as bioplastics and kombucha leather, reflecting on the environmental aspect of design. Jordan Script Routes, also in the Kabariti Village, traced Jordan's rich history through various writing systems, connecting ancient artefacts with contemporary design and further enriching the dialogue between past and future.