As the most popular exhibition at Amman Design Week, the Crafts District is a celebration of the act of making; both traditional and contemporary. Taking place in a new location each year, this pop-up experience combines design installations, exhibitions, shops, and cultural programs that offer craftspeople and makers from across the country a chance to share their ideas and stories. 

From weaving and embroidery to ceramics and pottery, craftspeople have kept their methods, traditions and aesthetic values alive, offering us a strong link to our national and cultural heritage. As the pioneers of design and making, craftspeople have informed the vernacular of design in Jordan, and continue to inspire contemporary design practices today.

The Kabariti Village

Tucked away in a hidden corner of Jabal Amman, the Kabariti Village is a private property owned by the Kabariti Family. It is a compound of old residential buildings, heritage homes, and gardens located off of Omar Bin Al Khattab Street and built in the 1930s. Sparsely visited by the public since its renovation in 2011, and unoccupied since 2008, the Kabariti Village will be open to the public during Amman Design Week 2019, where it will host the Crafts District exhibitions and showcases, thanks to a generous donation by the Kabariti family.

A Note from the Curators

The Crafts District
Journeys through the Crafts & Journeys of Materials 

ح ر ف

‎ِح ْر َف ة /   إِ ْح تَ َر َف /  َح َّر َف

The Arabic word Hirfa (ِح ْرَفة) is derived from the root h-r-f and means occupation, trade, handicraft. It is also shown to relate to labor as a source of livelihood sustained through practice, habit, and repetition (إِ ْحتَ َر َف); with connotations of processes of change and alteration (حَرَّفَ).

We move away from the notion of craft and tradition as authentic, singular, and frozen, to the notion of craft as alive and evolving; ever-changing forms of labor producing objects and transforming oneself. Through a journey of discovery of crafts and materials of the Levant, we aim for a different understanding of craftsmanship, whereby tradition is a sum of resources and materials gathered to craft possible futures.

By combining maps and storytelling with walking and performance, we feature artisan and training workshops, installations in-the-making and shops where products are sold. 
Material journeys are showcased through techniques of transformation from natural to composite states and from raw materials to crafted forms.

Visitors, artisans, and designers are taken on a journey through the multiple, dynamic and ever-changing crafts of Jordan’s Badia and Ghor region to the versatility of Levantine materials, as well as, their alteration with digital fabrication and computational design.