The site-specific installation Tašbik designed by Wesam Al Asali transforms an open-air courtyard in Amman into a gathering space built with local limestone, exploring the relationship between traditional construction techniques, craftsmanship, and architectural knowledge.
Tašbik is a site-specific architectural installation for the open lecture courtyard (Al Mudarraj) at Amman Design Week 2026 designed by Wesam Al Asali, an architect, Professor at IE School of Architecture & Design (IE University), co-founder and Director of Design and Innovation at IWlab, and founder of CERCAA (Educational Center for the Regeneration of Craft Construction) in Valencia, Spain.
The project explores accumulation as a spatial and material process through which matter, knowledge, and architecture are formed over time. The installation reintroduces the lightweight vaulting technique bóvedas tabicadas to the Arab region, presenting a journey of return: a material return through its reconstruction with local stone in the region, and an etymological return, as the Spanish term tabicadas derives from the Arabic word Tašbik (تشبيك). Transforming the courtyard into an open workshop, the project is composed of repeated stone vaults that serve as seating, a stage, and enclosing elements, creating a space that reveals architecture in the process of becoming.
Founded by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah in 2016, Amman Design Week is an immersive experience in local and regional design and culture. In its fourth edition, Amman Design Week 2026 presents Accumulations as both a condition and an imperative. This is not a celebration of things collected, but a profound meditation on how time, effort, and knowledge accumulate, often imperceptibly, into forms of cultural and material potential.
Amman Design Week 2026 Exhibition Curation: Faysal Tabbarah
Amman Design Week 2026 Program Curation: Khaled Al Bashir
Designer of Tasbik: Wesam Al Asali
Design Assistance: IE School of Architecture & Design Construction Lab (Anna Isabel Martinez and Yassamin Ghassimi)
Drafts and Details: Dalaa Al Khadra
Fabricator and Construction:
Stone Fabrication: Siwan Stone & Marble Co. - Amman, Jordan
Timber Sponsorship: Home Pillar- Amman, Jordan Materials:
Jordanian Limestone (Hallabat), Timber, Agro-textile
Area: 256 m2
