This ultra-modern property was completed in 2005 by Symbiosis Design a Jordan-based design studio. The project titled ‘Grafting the Ammani Landscape’ is a contemporary home in the city of Amman, Jordan.
Khalid Nahhas, the founder and senior architect of Symbiosis Designs, has taken a very different approach. The forms of his buildings attempt to connect to the surrounding topography, and their colours establish links to the earth-tone hues of the relatively dry landscapes of this part of the world. His architecture, however, does not try to make even the slightest of nods to the forms, materials, or techniques prevalent in the buildings of Amman, whether past or present. Instead, he consciously emphasizes the introduction of new forms and techniques.
The first impression with which the Abu Samra house receives the viewer relates to its use of materials and colour. Nahhas rejects the conventional use of stone in Amman, and by extension both its textures and the whitish tones associated with most examples of this material in Amman. Instead, he presents an earth-toned plastered building for which the subdued hues fit in perfectly well within the dry local landscape and the strong bright Jordanian sun.
Images courtesy of Arnaldo Genitrini, Osman Akuz and Ghassan Aqel
