The Arab countries of the eastern Mediterranean refer to gardens as little paradises (jnaina): bounded boxes of green - delicate curations of plants in an ordered composition.
The Hangar Exhibition
For the duration of the exhibition, the Hangar’s outdoor plaza will be home to Minor Paradises, a series of waterless public gardens, designed by Civil Architecture x studiolibani.
The Bahrain-based Civil Architecture is a cultural practice preoccupied with the making of buildings and books about them. Meanwhile, the Beirut-based studiolibani is an agency of landscape architects, urban strategists, and design visionaries invested in alternative thinking in landscape architecture and urbanism.
The installation consists of three major components: the gravel pits, sand/rock mounds, and benches that delineate various courtyard typologies. The benches are constructed of wood painted white, while the gravel pits and mounds create a distinct composition on the plaza framed within and in between the benches. The waterless gardens/ minor paradises also feature water resilient plant life from across the Jordanian landscape creating a sampling of the Levantine ecosystem. The ultimate question posed through this intervention asks ‘what does it mean to reimagine the traditional notion of the Arab garden and thus our traditional notions of paradise’?
Civil Architecture and studiolibani are also presenting a talk during Amman Design Week 2019, where they speak about their installation. Their talk will take place on the 5th of October, at 7:30 pm, on the Amman Design Week Stage.
Header photo by Edmund Sumner
The Arab countries of the eastern Mediterranean refer to gardens as little paradises (jnaina): bounded boxes of green - delicate curations of plants in an ordered composition.