2023

The project "Zarqa Memory" is a community center designed primarily to strengthen the human connection with the city. The profound transformation of Zarqa in a relatively short time has impacted people's love and attachment to the city, according to my research and surveys. The project also aims to revitalize missing social and cultural activities within the city. Located in an intermediate area between past informal settlements and current efforts to improve an economic development corridor, the project has the potential to stimulate investment in the surrounding area. The functions are not extraneous but rather integral to the place. Elderly residents share their visual memories of Zarqa before the 1980s, allowing the younger generation to experience the city's history. The project translates these memories into various activities and functions. Moreover, the space is highly flexible, adapting to different seasons and occasions. It boasts open areas that invite individuals to engage in social and cultural activities Central to the design is a mulberry yard, as it holds significant nostalgia for the elderly. They used to sell mulberries in cups to picnickers and sought shade under these trees. In a nod to both science and religion, there is a lighthouse-like structure, the highest point in the building, located on the side of the pedestrian bridge overlooking Old Zarqa. It serves as an observatory for people to behold Zarqa as they have never seen it before. Additionally, it is linked to the library and chapels, creating a harmonious blend of cultural, spiritual, and architectural elements. In summary, "Zarqa Memory" is an architecturally rich project that seeks to strengthen the city's cultural ties and enhance its social fabric. It preserves the city's history and provides a flexible, adaptable space for diverse activities while incorporating elements of nostalgia, science, and religion to create a unique and meaningful community center.

The story of Irbid began with its location in ancient times, as it was in the middle of the northern region of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The city gained a distinguished location and became the link between neighbouring countries, which qualified it to play a major role in the commercial field. markets and traders, which has become an integral part of CBD identity. By that time, the city downtown was exposed to urban development that caused changes in the composition and structure of the urban fabric, land use function changes, and a lack of connectivity between historical sites. The result is the loss of the city's identity, changes in social life and communication, and the liveliness of the streets. The main purpose of the project is to shed light on the separation that was formed and to rebuild a visual and physical connection between the two areas, reconnect the relationship between abandoned heritage buildings, and revive the culture of the Irbid people. by creating an urban and architectural dialogue related to the memory of the place. The selected site is located between these two districts linked by Al-Hashemi Street. The urban and architectural strategies focused on Re-using abandoned heritage buildings by returning to their old stories with a function that memorizes people of the history of the city and improves their skills with workshops and exhibitions. activating the old heritage market Sagha Souq with its distinctive spatial experience that contains the old black Stone, by adding cultural activities related to Irbid’s heritage. Thus, the site returns to residents, provides for their cultural and intellectual needs, revives the city’s memory, respects their heritage and focuses on the identity and character that characterizes downtown Irbid. Creating an architectural building from scratch that emphasizes dialogue and interaction between the residents and visitors and plays a magnet role to attract people and lead them to Al-Tal.

Imagine living with the threat of bombing at any second, having lived through 4 main wars and been blocked for 16 years by air, sea, and land. Imagine living in a city that is labeled as the ‘world’s largest open-air prison’. Imagine seeing death, violence, losing a home or a family member in a blink of an eye, and many other horrors at a very young age. This is the life of over 1 million children who make up 47% of Gaza. 91% of these children suffer from Trauma after the assaults of May 2021 (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor). This causes many consequences that affect the children’s future and education negatively. Due to the Living conditions in Gaza, there are limited spaces for the children to heal and express themselves, with the school as the most likely space to gather. This makes the school building a very strategic space to heal the children. There are 288 UNRWA schools across Gaza making it a good choice for the intervention especially since it is based on a modular prototype and is used as a shelter during emergencies. The problem is that these schools were designed as a fast solution to educate the Palestinian refugees escaping to safe countries, but not for Gaza’s specific context where it faces constant assaults. This leads to the question of how a traditional UNRWA school can become a healing refuge for the children. I am proposing a strategy to heal the children of Gaza through schools by converting UNRWA schools into community healing hubs to create a network of healing spaces all over Gaza. Two existing adjacent UNRWA schools were chosen as the first prototype application in a very condensed site within Deir AL-balah camp in need of open spaces. Although the schools are in front of the sea, they are facing away from it Architecturally. My intervention is to open the school completely to the sea and the public creating a journey of healing and creative expression spaces connecting the site, school, slope, and sea.