Azraq Alive

Keywords: community engagement, participatory design, toolkits, public space. refugee camp, town, play.

Azraq Alive is an initiative, under the organization Civic, that I co-founded in 2018. We envisioned bringing a new model of community development to Jordan and finding ways to enable communities to plan and design their spaces. Using an asset-based model of development, Azraq Alive aimed to bring life to two marginalized places -Azraq town and Azraq refugee camp. This meant working at all scales- from high level visioning to small-scale interventions. A unique aspect of our work was the "Urban95" methodology. Urban95 is an approach which believes that by designing cities for children 95 cm high (average height of a three year old) and their caregivers, you are essentially creating places that are comfortable for everyone. It has been applied in 10+ cities globally and Azraq Alive was the first to test it in the Arab world.

I led on the activation of underutilized public spaces; prototyping play design, leading placemaking interventions, and creating a public space club. With the support of a field team, my work included: stakeholder mapping, data collection, a model neighborhood plan, design and implementation of public benches and play spaces, safety inspections for play spaces based on Danish standards, and transforming an abandoned building into a “Open House”, which hosted community events and the Azraq Alive vision. *

Through Azraq Alive's partnership with Azraq Municipality, I realized the lack of basic urban and town planning knowledge at the municipal level. However, we still made the most of existing resources. One of the projects I led was the co-design and manufacturing of play equipment for a community space. Joining up the municipality's Development Unit and a Syrian ironsmith led to a harmony of design ideas, financial feasibility, manufacturing capacity, knowledge exchange, and a truly local achievement. Working in Azraq and becoming intimately familiar with it opened my eyes to the need for policies tailored to different areas of Jordan and their spatial and cultural specificities.

Projects included: Model neighborhood, play spaces, crosswalks, open house space, collective planning tools, public space workshops, public space benches, collaborative planning process.

*Please note that some of the work shown on this page no longer exists on the ground or did not get implemented during my time working on Azraq Alive. That said, all photos and projects you see did at least exist at some point in time and some still remains.

A special thanks to the people who worked with me and supported me throughout this journey:

• سلطان أبو تايه | Sultan Abotayeh -public space, play space, and Open House implementation, partner in crime :)

• مروان البياري | Marwan Al Bayari -filmmaking and photography, Living Blueprint Film

• دينا بطشون | Dina Batshon -living blueprint, project plans, and Monitoring & Evaluation

• عمر بريقع | Omar Braika -Humans of Azraq stories, photography, videography

• منذر أبو حميدان | Munther Abu Hmeidan - Open House design

• Madi Lommen - Open House implementation, personal cheerleader :)

• رايا شربين | Raya Sharbain - public bench stencils

• أبو خالد | Abu Khaled - steel playground equipment construction

• أبو شوق | Abu Shoq- wooden playground equipment construction

• منصور الشومري | Mansour Al Shomari - playground equipment design

• أبو باسل | Abu Basel - foldable swing design and construction

• هديل حباشنة | Hadil Habashneh - Open House seat cushions

Achievements: