Desert Ecologies

The workshop proposed rethinking the process of developing architectural interventions within the Jordanian desert. Set within the dynamic city of Amman, the rose-rock carved city of Petra and the echoing desert of Wadi Rum.

The context of the south Jordan desert ecology was used as a precedent to experimenting with material processes in architectural design. Geological formations of Jordanian landscapes had a major impact on the outcomes of this research. The group started their exploration with a trip to Wadi Rum and Petra, to document the natural and man-made materializations within the Jordanian desert. Computational design tools were used to script logic systems that generated formal iterations, following certain programmatic functions of interventions planned by the students within fore-mentioned sites.

The [uto] unit planned at the larger scale of urban settlements. These were to be robotically excavated directly onto the topography of the desert and would have forms that regulate their interiors in a passive manner. CNC Milling on natural Jordanian limestone was attempted to represent scaled models of these ideas. Carving directly onto the face of the desert topography, the group simulated settlement patterns that emerge with no preconceived notions of top-down urban planning. Applying the principles of Hedonic Value mapping to urban growth simulations.