What's in Store: Amman Design Week 2026
In a few days, Amman Design Week will open its doors across the city, with plenty to see beyond the main exhibitions. Four new installations will remain in Ras El Ain after the Week is over, a restored 1950s house in Jabal Al Lweibdeh will host conversations throughout its rooms, and 95 programmes will unfold across sixteen days. This year also takes the Week beyond Amman for the first time, with a programme in Aqaba developed around the coastal city and its communities.
It all forms part of Accumulations, the theme shaping this year’s fourth edition. More than 220 designers, makers and collectives are taking part from October 2 to 17, across Ras El Ain, Jabal Al Lweibdeh, Jabal Amman and Iraq Al Amir, as well as Aqaba.
Earlier this week, Naso spoke with co-directors Bisher Tabbaa and Sarah Hejazin about the ideas and planning behind the Week’s return. Now, with opening day almost here, we’re taking a closer look at what’s actually on, where to find it and what visitors can expect.
This Year’s Theme: Accumulations
Led by exhibition curator Faysal Tabbarah and programme curator Khaled Al-Bashir, Accumulations looks at how ideas, materials and knowledge build over time, and how what exists today carries traces of what came before it.
That thinking runs through the way the exhibitions have been put together. Each project is presented alongside a trace of where it came from, giving visitors a glimpse into the histories, references and influences behind the finished work.
Four Permanent Additions
While most of Amman Design Week comes down after October 17, four new installations will remain as permanent additions to the city.
At the Shariah Mosque, Ziad Jamaleddine and Makram el Kadi of L.E.FT, working with Iheb Guermazi and Beya Othamani, have created Ard al-Sahn, transforming the surrounding intersection into a stone plaza oriented toward the Qibla, with flowering trees and bird baths incorporated into the space.
In Ras El Ain Park, Civil Architecture's Folly creates a shaded gathering place beneath the existing trees, with a ceramic-tile roof developed and manufactured in Jordan by Haswa. Nearby, Abeer Anabtawi's Nawwarat Amman brings tomatoes, chamomile, mallow leaves and wheat onto a new basketball court, drawing from the plants and produce familiar across the city.
Mohamad Nahleh's Domes of the Rock, also in Ras El Ain Park, turns a functional lighting pole and stone seat into a sculptural record of the Dome of the Rock and the many repairs it has undergone over almost thirteen centuries.
Together, the four projects mean that a small part of this year's Design Week will remain in the city long after the programme ends.
Where to Go
The first stop is Ras El Ain, opening on October 2 and home to the Hangar, Al Mamsha, Al Mudarraj and Ras El Ain Park.
At its centre is the Hangar, a steel-trussed building originally constructed in the 1930s to house Amman’s electricity generators. Restored by the Greater Amman Municipality with TURATH Architecture, it now serves as one of the Week’s main exhibition spaces.
Jabal Al Lweibdeh joins the programme a day later. Darat Abu Adnan, a restored 1950s house, hosts programming throughout its rooms, from the kitchen and salon to the balcony. The Student Exhibition also returns for its third edition, supported by the Sukhtian Foundation, bringing together 42 students selected from more than 200 applicants across 88 institutions.
Across Jabal Amman, galleries, studios, cafés and creative businesses join the programme, forming part of a wider network of more than 60 participating spaces across the city.
From October 8, the Week expands further. In Iraq Al Amir, programming takes place around Qasr Al Abd, the Iraq Al-Amir Women’s Cooperative and Naqsh Collective. And, for the first time, Amman Design Week travels to Aqaba, with a programme developed alongside WUJŪD around the city’s coastline, histories and communities.
What's On
There are 95 programmes taking place across the sixteen days, so there is plenty to choose from.
At Darat Abu Adnan, Salon Sessions bring small groups together for informal conversations around a particular subject. Talks on the Roof give practitioners and institutions space to present their work through talks, demonstrations and performance-lectures, while Conversations in the Center, held at the Al-Hussein Cultural Center Auditorium, bring together speakers from different fields for larger public discussions.
There are also 39 workshops spanning different materials, questions and practices, alongside six walks and tours across the city and six family workshops, which begin in the weeks leading up to the event and feed what they make back into the exhibitions.
Ten performances developed with Al Balad Theater bring music, sound and movement into the programme, drawing on inherited melodies, archival material and sounds from around the city. Other activations will continue throughout the sixteen days, including self-guided experiences and residencies that develop over the course of the Week.
The Student Mentorship Program has expanded through a partnership with the Madrasati initiative and the Ministry of Education, connecting students with practitioners working across typography, furniture making, architecture, UX/UI design, community-centered design, product design, digital fabrication and jewelry design. Public school groups will also have dedicated tours of the Hangar.
The Ithra Design Week x ADW Residency continues an ongoing collaboration between designers from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, with work from the residency presented across this year’s exhibitions.
Before You Go
Dates: October 2–17, 2026, free and open to the public
Ras El Ain: opens October 2, 10am–10pm daily (Fridays 12–10pm)
Jabal Al Lweibdeh: opens October 3, 10am–10pm daily (Fridays 12–10pm)
Jabal Amman: participating spaces keep their own hours throughout
Iraq Al Amir: opens October 8, 10am–6pm daily
Aqaba: opens October 8, 5pm–midnight daily (Fridays and Saturdays 12pm–midnight)
Full programme and registration: ammandesignweek.com
