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Youth Di’uan House

Amman, Iordania
Author: Sabrina AHMAD
Tutors: sef lucr dr arh Dan Dinoiu, prof dr arh Dorin Stefan, prof dr ing Stefania Spanu

Authors’ Comment

Youth Di’uan House envisions a new type of dwelling for the new generations of Palestinian refugee families in Amman.
Built on Islamic principles, my project reinterprets one of the strongest social structures, the Diuan, a social center built, shared and nurtured by the community, including it in the housing program. Thereby, the Youth Di’uan undertakes the traditional diuan’s functionality and maintains cultural identity through means of alternative education. Children are invited in this low-tech makerspace to dismantle and transform existing objects, in order learn about themselves and their surroundings through the act of playing.
Islamic architecture dictates mediation between public and private spaces. As such, the project engages and adapts several traditional Arabic architectural elements: the courtyard, the mashrabiya within the detached façade, the guest rooms, the movable furniture.
The goal is social sustainability. New social connections maintain and nurture the relationships within a vulnerable community. Transitional spaces such as courtyards, guest areas, terraces or the space within the façade are meant to help relationships develop, generating new living scenarios.