Center for the Study of the Built Environment: 2019 Annual Report
Summary
During 2019, CSBE collaborated with the Madrasati Initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development on designing and implementing four murals through a participatory design process at four public schools located in the Amman, Irbid, and Mafraq areas. In addition, CSBE completed the twelfth cycle of the Omrania | CSBE Student Award for Architectural Design. Moreover, CSBE continued its work on urban agriculture in Jordan in association with the Amman office of the Fredrich Ebert Foundation. This included launching our study on urban agriculture during the third edition Amman Design Week, and developing an activity manual on planting for school-age students. We also carried out a study on contemporary dwellings in rural areas in association with – and through support from - Uraiqat Architects. Finally, CSBE completed its work with the Ahliyyah School for Girls and Bishop’s School Amman on developing a process for selecting an architectural office for designing a new campus for the merged two schools. As for CSBE's 2019 budget, revenues more or less matched expenses when taking into consideration that certain revenues expected in 2019 were received in early 2020.
Projects and activities
Designing and implementing four murals in four schools through a participatory design process
CSBE collaborated with the Madrasati Initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development on designing and implementing four murals through a participatory design process at four public schools located in the Amman, Irbid, and Mafraq areas. During the participatory design sessions, the students provided drawings that inspired mural artist Yazan Mesmar in developing the final mural designs at the schools. Students chose one of two themes presented to them by the Madrasati Initiative for their murals, "non-extremism and acceptance of the other" and "non-violence and peace-building." Both the students and volunteers participated in the implementation of the murals. The schools are Umm Manee’ School for Girls in Amman, al-Dafyaneh Co-Ed School and al-Mafraq School for Boys in Mafraq, and Aqrabah School for Girls in Irbid.
This work builds on the Enhancing Civic Responsibility of Youth in Schools project, which was funded by the USAID Civic Initiatives Support Program in Jordan and carried out in association with the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, and that CSBE carried out between 2015 and 2018. The project included redesigning and rehabilitating the grounds for a number of public middle-schools located in and around Amman through a highly interactive process that involved the schools' students, teachers, and administrators. These processes aim at promoting a sense of civic responsibility among the youth by creating opportunities for them to take part in designing and implementing improvements to their school environments, thus promoting a sense of belonging to and ownership of their schools.
The Omrania | CSBE Student Award for Architectural Design
176 entries were submitted for the 2019 twelfth cycle of the Omrania | CSBE Student Award for Architectural Design. Of these, 151 qualified for consideration by the Award. Those entries came from 38 universities in seven countries in the Arab world: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.
The Award jury consisted of Jordanian architect Rana Beiruti, Co-Founder and Director of Amman Design Week; Turkish architect Can Çinici, Director of Çinici Architects in Istanbul; and American architect Thomas Vonier, President of the International Union of Architects (UIA). The Award jury members met in Amman in October 2019 to evaluate the participating entries and select the winners. They identified three equal winning projects, the designer of each received 3,333 USD in prize money. The winning projects were from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, the American University of Beirut, and the University of Jordan.
The Award’s eighth public lecture was organized in conjunction with the jury meetings for this cycle of the Award. It was by Award jury member Thomas Vonier, and was entitled “The Two Critical Challenges Facing Architects Today … and Tomorrow.” The lecture was delivered at the Columbia Global Centers | Amman.
The Award ceremony and exhibition were held in Amman in November at the Fairmont Hotel.
The design of a new campus for the Ahliyyah School for Girls and Bishop’s School Amman
The Ahliyyah School for Girls (ASG) and Bishop’s School Amman (BSA) are amongst Jordan’s oldest and most respected schools. The two schools have been undergoing a process of merging over the past few years, and the process is expected to be fully completed in the near future. The schools’ current facilities can no longer satisfy their spatial needs and sustain their values and vision. A decision was consequently made to relocate the two schools to a new campus that would be designed in a manner that satisfies the needs and aspirations of the merged institution in terms of space and facilities, and that is physically more easily accessible to the school community.
CSBE has been working with ASG / BSA in helping them select an architect for the new campus for the merged school. CSBE’s work has included developing a design brief for the new school campus, carrying out a pre-qualification process for the design of the campus amongst interested Jordanian architectural offices, inviting nine pre-qualified offices to submit technical and financial proposals for the new school campus design, and organizing a jury panel that reviewed the submitted designs and recommended finalists to the schools’ administration and board of directors. The five-person jury met in April 2019 and selected two finalist projects. From amongst these two, the school’s board of directors selected the office of Maisam Architects and Engineers to design the new school campus.
The CSBE Urban Agriculture Project
CSBE had completed in the fall of 2018 an extensive study in association with Fredrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) on urban agriculture in Jordan, concentrating on Amman, and made it available online and in print during the fall of 2019. The study initiated a related project on the subject that has included developing a hands-on activity guide for school-age students on urban agriculture, developing training-of-trainers workshops on implementing the guide, and implementing urban agriculture activities based on the guide in a number of schools. A planting area already has been implemented in al-Jaza’ir School for Girls in Amman. The area includes five planting beds that are irrigated through a wicking process, two of which are provided with covers that allow them to function as miniature greenhouses. The planting arrangement also includes connecting the planting area to the school’s water supply. Support for setting up the planting area was provided by Investbank. CSBE also linked the ‘Amwas Community Organization with the regional television station MBC, which covered the costs of installing a similar planting area on the organization’s rooftop to be featured in an episode of one of their series. Both planting areas were implemented by the Greening the Camps initiative.
CSBE, in association with FES, plans to install a planting area in another public school, and to implement the planting activity guide in the two schools during the course of 2020. The activity guide will be further developed and expanded upon based on the outcome of its implementation in the two schools.
Contemporary Rural Dwellings in Jordan
CSBE carried out, in association with - and through support from – the Jordanian office of Uraiqat Architects, a study addressing contemporary rural dwellings in Jordan. The study concentrated on the town of Umm al-Yanabi’ in the ‘Ajlun Governorate in northern Jordan, and was facilitated by Habitat for Humanity – Jordan. The study examined various aspects of such dwellings, including how they are conceived, designed, licensed, financed, constructed, and expanded upon. The study will be made available to the public through the CSBE website in 2020.
Enhancing the Quality of Urban Life Massive Open Online Course (MOOC):
CSBE organized in 2018 an open online course in association with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) entitled “Enhancing the Quality of Urban Life: Fifteen Winning Projects of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.” This is the second open online course that CSBE has developed (the first one was through the Edraak platform and addressed the contemporary Arab city), and is part of CSBE’s efforts to keep abreast of ongoing technological and pedagogical developments as it works on disseminating knowledge relating to the built environment to the public. This free online course was offered for a second and third time during 2019, in February and in November. CSBE, in association with AKTC, in addition organized a blended version of the course according to which it was taught both online and as a university course involving in-class discussion sessions. The blended course was offered at the University of Sharjah by Professor Majd Musa and at the German Jordanian University by Professor Janset Shwash.
Online publications
CSBE has continued to actively expand the content of its website during 2019. New materials added to the website have included the following:
- Adding two buildings to Amman's (and Aqaba’s) Worth-Noticing Spaces and Places section: the Sharif Al Hussein bin ‘Ali House in Aqaba, and the King Talal House (Ilyas ‘Azar House) in Amman (http://www.csbe.org/amman-worth-noticing-spaces-and-places).
- Adding new sites to the interactive map that documents various works of street art in Amman
(www.csbe.org/amman-street-art-documentation-project).
- The Park and the City: Notable Public Parks around the World: This publication provides an overview of twelve urban public parks from around the world, and provides maps that show the location of each park within the context of an 18-km2 area of the city in which the park is located (https://www.csbe.org/the-park-and-the-city).
A Guide to Participatory Design: Working with Youth in Schools. This publication develops into a ready-to-use manual the approach we used for our Enhancing Civic Responsibility of Youth in Schools project. The project, mentioned above, included redesigning and rehabilitating the grounds for a number of public middle-schools through a highly interactive process that involved the schools' students, teachers, and administrators (https://www.csbe.org/participatory-design).
Social media presence
CSBE continues to strive for a significant social media presence through its Facebook page. These feature regular postings about CSBE's publications and activities, as well as postings with outside links to articles, videos, and events of interest to those concerned with the built environment.
CSBE also continues to manage the Omrania | CSBE Student Award Facebook page, which aims at disseminating detailed information about the Award.
The number of "Likes" for each of the CSBE and Omrania | CSBE Student Award Facebook page exceeded 8,000 at the end of 2019.
View the Omrania | CSBE Student Award Facebook page
CSBE Research and Coordination Officers Touma Hamarneh and Reef Qubailat both left CSBE in 2019 to pursue other opportunities. We thank both of them for the valuable contributions they made to CSBE during the time of their affiliation with us, and we wish them the best of luck with their future plans. Three new Research and Coordination Officers joined CSBE in 2019. They are Zaid Wahbeh, Sama Gaith, and Taleen Samawi. All three are recent architecture graduates of the German Jordanian University.
Finances
CSBE continues to function on a very limited budget, particularly in comparison to its outputs. CSBE’s primary income for 2019 included support obtained from Omrania and Associates for carrying out the Omrania | CSBE Student Award and from a number of companies and institutions that have commissioned us to carry out various projects and studies during the year.
CSBE’s total income in 2019 amounted to about 24,365 JD, and total expenses amounted to about 31,900 JD. 8,150 JD of the projected income for 2019 was not received until early 2020. If the latter amount is included, then CSBE’s revenues would have covered its 2019 expenses, and also realized a very small surplus. This budget, however, is CSBE’s smallest since 2001, i.e. since the first two years of CSBE’s existence, when it was undergoing a process of establishment. Increasing governmental restrictions on the ability of Jordanian NGOs to obtain funding from non-Jordanian sources have greatly limited our capacity to secure the funds we need to carry out our work. (note: 1 JD = 1.41 USD)
Obeidat and Freihat Attorneys & Counselors at Law have continued to provide legal counseling to CSBE on a pro bono basis. Also, CSBE Director Mohammad al-Asad gave all the time he devoted to CSBE in 2019 on an unpaid basis. CSBE is grateful for their support.
Finally, a special thank you is due to the CSBE staff and board of directors for all the efforts they made to ensure that 2019 was a successful year for the Center.