Tašbik is a site-specific architectural installation by Wesam Al Asali for Al Mudarraj, the open lecture courtyard used by Amman Design Week 2026. Built from Jordanian limestone from Hallabat, timber and agro-textile across 256 square metres, it turns the courtyard into an open workshop made of repeated stone vaults.
The project brings the lightweight vaulting technique known as bóvedas tabicadas back to the Arab region. Al Asali frames it as a double return. The vaults are reconstructed in stone from the region, and the Spanish word tabicadas itself derives from the Arabic tašbik (تشبيك), which gives the installation its name.
An open workshop
The repeated vaults work as seating, a stage and enclosing elements. Rather than presenting a finished object, the courtyard shows architecture in the process of becoming, with the stone pieces set out, lifted and assembled on site.
The installation answers the theme of the fourth edition of Amman Design Week, Accumulations, by treating accumulation as a spatial and material process through which matter, knowledge and architecture form over time. Faysal Tabbarah curated the exhibition and Khaled Al Bashir the programme. Founded by Queen Rania Al Abdullah in 2016, the design week ran from 2 to 17 October 2026.
Designer: Wesam Al Asali
Photography: Sherbel Dissi, Edmund Sumner, Saifuldeen Fayez
Location: Al Mudarraj, Amman Design Week 2026, Amman, Jordan
