Under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Amman Design Week is set to reopen its doors after a seven-year absence, with a new edition held under the theme "Accumulations," running from October 2 to 17.
اضافة اعلان
This year's edition brings together more than 220 designers, makers, and creative groups, featuring 204 events held across a number of locations both inside and outside the capital, Amman. The programming targets different segments of the public, through children's workshops, guided exhibition tours, and lectures and open discussions for visitors, enthusiasts, practitioners, and specialists.
Amman Design Week, launched as an initiative by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah in 2016, aims to broaden participation in the field of design and open it up to different segments of society. Makers take part alongside designers as an essential part of the design landscape, including artisans working in ceramics, textiles, and stone. The 2026 edition of Amman Design Week also presents four permanent projects that will remain in Amman's public spaces after the week concludes, three of them in the Ras Al-Ain area and one on Jabal Al-Weibdeh.
The biennial event returns under new leadership, with Sarah Hijazin and Bushra Tabba'a serving as directors of Amman Design Week.
According to Hijazin and Tabba'a, the week's return comes as a result of continued growth during the years of its absence, spanning communities of designers and makers to teachers and students, and the ongoing work of research, exchange, and learning they built through workshops, classes, studios, and local communities across the Kingdom.
Hijazin said: "Amman Design Week never fully disappeared. Over seven years, without a public platform, the design community continued its work: designers testing new ideas, makers passing on their expertise, and students continuing to learn." For his part, Tabba'a added: "This edition brings this work before the public, showing just how present design is in the details of everyday life in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan." Since its launch, Amman Design Week has been held in ongoing partnership with the Greater Amman Municipality, a partnership that reflects continuous strategic support stemming from a firm conviction among the Municipality's senior leadership that design, culture, and creativity are not merely aesthetic elements, but tools that can serve as a key input in developing the city and building its future. Executive Director of the Smart City initiative at the Greater Amman Municipality, Lubna Al-Hunaiti, affirmed "the institution's role in supporting different age groups of designers and creatives, particularly young people and youth, in strengthening and developing urban design and expanding community engagement as an integral part of its ongoing approach and within its strategic plan for the years 2022–2026." She added: "This continued partnership also reflects the Greater Amman Municipality's commitment to creating a higher-quality, more inclusive, and sustainable urban environment, which strengthens Amman's urban standing and preserves the city's identity and distinctiveness."
The 2026 edition will also feature the display of works produced during a design enrichment week held in collaboration with Amman Design Week, which brought together designers from Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The Student Exhibition also returns for its third edition, supported by the Sakhtian Foundation, showcasing 34 projects completed by 40 students, selected from among 203 applications submitted by 88 educational institutions.
This year's theme, "Accumulations," was curated by Faisal Tabbarah and Khalid Al-Bashir, and stems from the idea that design forms and develops over time, drawing on inherited materials and knowledge and repeated practices. It also reconsiders the concept of abundance, moving away from an abundance of material resources, and instead focusing on the knowledge, experience, and innovation people hold, and on the layered environments that create the conditions for creativity.
Khalid Al-Bashir, programs curator, said: "One of the ideas that accompanied the concept of 'Accumulations' is that no subject remains confined to itself. The deeper we dig into it, the more it extends into other materials, histories, people, systems, and places. And sometimes, a very small detail can lead us to an entire world." Faisal Tabbarah, exhibitions curator, added: "Joining Amman Design Week 2026 as exhibitions curator is an opportunity to work with an exceptional group of designers, craftspeople, and makers. This year's edition seeks to paint a rooted, multi-layered picture of what design means in our region; a picture that emerges from the hands of this place, its materials and memory, and from people's relationship to it and how they shape it." More than 60 participating spaces across various parts of Amman are taking part in Amman Design Week 2026, most concentrated in Jabal Amman. These spaces include studios, cultural institutions, and creative companies, hosting exhibitions, workshops, seminars, and events open to the public over the course of two weeks.
Resource: Al-Ghad.
