The Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh (MMAG) Foundation
Jabal Amman, Jordan
2019 ongoing
In collaboration with AAU Anastas
The MMAG Foundation offers space for the exhibition and production of art. Greenwood Barton Architects and AAU Anastas are appointed to develop a brief, a masterplan and provide initial designs for the foundation’s campus in Jabal Amman.
The site of the foundation is on a hill between two streets. Buildings which were historically separate are connected by a patchwork of uneven terraces and earthy banks.
A new horizontal connection approximately halfway between the two streets, navigates changes in level from South East to North West, following a topographical logic which makes Villas Shams Al Dein, Abu Al Huda, Kawar and the Kawar office building accessible along the same transversal path.
The stepping terraces of Shams Al Dein connect the building to the existing topography at each level providing a sense of orientation in relation to the campus and the city.
Rough hewn stones reclaimed from demolition of Villa Shams Al Dein are set aside and used to construct two small, geometrically composed buildings beneath the former guard’s house, forming the administrative centre of the Foundation. The placement of these structures creates interstitial spaces and a sense of density which speak to and enhance spatial morphologies which exist elsewhere on the site.
Demolition of a late addition to the rear of Villa Kawar and the addition of a new staircase provide access to a secluded garden and create multiple connected routes through the site.
Elements, such as a wire mesh fence, a structural coffered ceiling, load bearing cores and an open facade, give the character of the proposed building an infrastructural feel and help to regulate the internal climate.
New interventions make the site accessible to all by providing an open infrastructure of varied spatial typologies which are specific but not elaborately defined. In this way it will respond to Charles Renfro’s proposition that “the art school must accept new methods of production without knowing them”.
