Dongola Architecture Series

The Dongola Architecture Series (DAS) is a biannual book series that offers unique insight into Arab culture through the lens of its most iconic contemporary architects, and attempts to grapple with our environment’s past and present to better inform how we design our future.

Each issue focuses on a specific architect’s formation and processes, and on their contributions to regional knowledge production. DAS is not an endorsement of style, but rather of methodology, affect, and synchronicity with the world. It is an investigation of the ethics, politics, positioning, and decision-making processes of the people tasked to analyze, build, and narrate the world we live in.

The first issue, titled Notes on Formation: Ammar Khammash dives into the perspective of Jordanian architect, artist, and anthropologist Ammar Khammash. With more than 30 years of practice in a wide array of fields, Khammash embodies the ethos of DAS: architecture as a trans-disciplinary tool of expression, and as a method of imagining and reimagining the future. His focus on cultural and natural heritage, and his deep respect for the environment, leads to the production of work that is truly and intimately in conversation with its surroundings. His projects, which include the Wild Jordan Center, the restoration of the Church of Apostles, and the Royal Academy for Nature Conservation, have been recognized internationally for the sensitivities and solemnity with which Ammar has approached them. This has led to his being awarded the 2019 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. Echoing the history of the land it rests on, and the ways in which it functions, Ammar’s work becomes a fundamental part of its landscape and context.

Ammar Khammash is a renowned architect, anthropologist, and artist. His trans-disciplinary expertise have led Ammar towards a distinct vision of territorially rooted innovation. His work includes everything from commercial projects, sustainable tourism, and restoration to cultural centers and landscape design. Khammash Architect’s Royal Academy for Nature Conservation was short-listed for the 2017 Aga Khan Award in Architecture. He was also awarded the 2019 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.

Dongola Architecture Series—Notes on Formation: Ammar Khammash

Publisher: Dongola
Editor: Raafat Majzoub
Art Director: Reza Abedini
Release: 2023, expected by 1st quarter
Dimensions: 23 × 28 cm 
Volume: 216 pages, hardcover
Printing / Binding: Anis Commercial Printing Press
Language: English
ISBN: 978-9953-970-07-3
Price: € 69.–
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