The Hangar Exhibition
There is a growing interest in the attributes of our land and the potential that lays in the soil and in the earth. The following design works explore this potential and create intriguing pieces and research into Jordanian soil that offer new ways to look at and use this ubiquitous element.
Atlal Collective, a group of multidisciplinary designers based in Amman, investigates the possibilities of soil in an installation that is designed to last only for the duration of the exhibition. The work is made up of nine columns, each composed of soils found in different parts of Jordan, placed on a platform. Each column is constructed using a rammed earth building technique. Visitors are invited to touch these forms and as they do, they crumble and erode. The platform acts as a sieve, allowing crumble and debris from the mud columns to fall through it onto the floor below.
This work is supported by takween, a program initiated by platform and Goethe-Institut.
In another manifestation of rammed earth investigations, architect Bisher Tabbaa designs an ergonomically friendly reading chair. Bisher, currently pursuing his Master’s degree at Columbia GSAPP, uses natural materials and the rammed earth technique to create the ‘Earth Chair’, in an attempt to encourage the use of earth as a building material.
