Terroir (2022 – ongoing)

A traveling cultural space handwoven in homage to the traditional Bedouin ground loom, immersing visitors in indigenous craftsmanship that is both technologically and environmentally adaptive.

Designing for our current era and future contexts necessitates a deep reverence for the past. We must engage with both the present and the enduring nature of indigenous relationships and their responses to the environment. In the Arab world, embodied processes of production were central to making and daily life for centuries. The Bedouin ground loom was the focal point of communal interaction, the site where nomadic homes were woven and intergenerational knowledge was transferred from daughter to daughter. However, such ancestral knowledge faces increasing erosion, as does our historical resilience, adaptability, and communal ways of living. Like the conscious architects of Bedouin life, architecture for a changing world must honor and build upon existing practices and traditions, including what has often been left out of the canon. Understanding that form is transient but cyclical—akin to the passage of sunlight in a day—helps us appreciate its nature as fleeting yet changed, rising again in new forms and contexts.

In Terroir, I return to raw materials, qualities imbued through context, and the intimacy of handmaking. Grounded in local Jordanian knowledge, this project aims to revive traditional weaving practices through a community-centered architectural program. Drawing on embodied wisdom, this initiative supports women’s livelihoods, emphasizes a circular economy, and  culturally empowers indigenous communities. The skilled hands of women weave a composite, fusing Bedouin tradition with novel methods to create a state-of-the-art structural fabric and context. Rather than a nostalgic continuation of ancient crafts, it seeks to integrate our heritage into the communal future. In this praxis between tradition, modernity, and homemaking, Terroir bridges architecture and textile into a unified language, where material is process and product simultaneously, reflecting the transience inherent to our existence. 

In what ways do human hands bring together tangible and intangible elements to reveal a place’s beauty and personhood?

Imbued with the immaterial essence of memory and place, Terroir was created by fifty-six women and one man from the Al Howeitat tribe (الحويطات) in Al-Jafr, within Jordan’s southeastern Badia desert. It features sixteen fabric strips that interlace wooden rods with handspun wool from the Awassi sheep native to the Arab region. Developed through extensive material experimentation, the strips are handwoven and twisted into spirals. Inspired from the Bedouin ground loom, this three-dimensional structure operates on the same principle of tensioning material between two opposing poles. The ground, the wool, the ropes—all embody ‘terroir,’ or ‘sense of place,’ A term derived from the French ‘terre’ (land) that signifies the unique qualities of a raw material  shaped by its context. Terroir continues my exploration of the Bedouin home, the Beit Al Sha’ar (بيت الشعر), or ‘house of hair.’ Although often perceived as impermanent, it represents centuries of women architects in an occupation predominated by men. The Bedouin social fabric and home are sustained by the hands of their women, for whom weaving is a means of self-expression. Thus, both woven and unwoven, their adaptation endures. 

In cultivating a tangible space for sensorial learning, the structure recalls the traditional majlis found in Bedouin tents—integral spaces for community gatherings and sanctuaries for education. Designed to be rollable and easily disassembled for storage, Terroir can be transported and adapted for diverse cultural activities. Visitors are invited to pause and contemplate, connecting with the craftsmanship woven into every detail of the structure. It is a bridge between maker and visitor, immersing them in an embodied making experience. As it travels, Terroir will evolve, facilitating deeper cultural exchanges and fostering opportunities for mutual learning and appreciation.