World Architecture Awards 10+5+X Submissions

VISION AND PURPOSE

The Maggie’s Centre is envisioned as far more than a medical support facility—it is a sanctuary that nurtures warmth, hope, and emotional resilience for individuals living with cancer. The design aspires to create an environment that uplifts the human spirit, providing spaces where visitors can find comfort, strength, and a renewed sense of belonging.
Through an emphasis on playfulness, simplicity, and light, the Centre introduces moments of joy and calm that gently contrast the emotional weight of illness. It acknowledges that cancer affects every aspect of the human experience—mind, body, and spirit—and therefore aims to support holistic well-being. The design encourages personal reflection, social connection, and therapeutic engagement, creating a place that restores balance and dignity. Ultimately, the Centre’s purpose is to serve as a healing environment where architecture itself becomes a form of care—supporting both emotional and physical recovery.

DESIGN INTENT

The architectural intent focuses on crafting a welcoming, human-centered space that feels closer to a home than a healthcare facility. The design prioritizes warmth, openness, and gentle transitions between indoor and outdoor areas, creating a seamless dialogue with nature. The spatial organization promotes privacy while maintaining a sense of community—spaces for solitude coexist harmoniously with areas for interaction and support. Natural light, tactile materials, and organic forms are carefully composed to evoke serenity and familiarity, fostering an atmosphere where users feel safe, valued, and at peace.

CONCEPT

The conceptual foundation of the project draws inspiration from origami—an art form defined by transformation, lightness, and resilience. Just as a single sheet of paper can be folded into complex and beautiful forms, the architecture symbolizes the strength and adaptability of those navigating life with cancer.
The folded geometry informs both form and structure, resulting in dynamic rooflines, fluid surfaces, and soft transitions that express movement and growth. These gestures create spaces that breathe and open toward the landscape, framing views of nature as sources of contemplation and healing.
By integrating lightweight materials and natural elements, the Centre embodies transparency, adaptability, and harmony with its surroundings. The interplay between light, shadow, and texture evokes a sense of hope and renewal—reflecting the transformative journey that Maggie’s Centres are known to support.

Rhino 7
D5 render
v-ray
photoshop
illustrator
autocad
Aamna Jassem, Ruqait AlAli
Hend Ali Alshehhi
Faculty Professor: Igor Peraza

Reviving the Heart of Ajloun:

The story of Ajloun starts with its city center and its people. Ajloun city center, like those of many other Jordanian cities, is shaped by invisible social rhythms and cultural layers that most planners and architects often miss. It has vibrant yet underutilized spaces that has deep cultural, social, and environmental narratives. Thus, this project aims to bring those hidden qualities to light by rethinking the city center as a lively and welcoming public space for both locals and visitors. The project includes three areas of intervention: The Great Mosque of Ajloun, The Hesbet Ajloun, and a central square that has been left to fall into disrepair and is now used as a parking lot for public buses.

The project starts with the threshold of the city center which is the Great Mosque of Ajloun, one of the oldest historical Jordanian mosques, built during the Mamluk and Ayyubid periods. the mosque is considered a landmark characterized by its semi-pointed arches, modest minaret, and yellow limestone. with its sunk square and minaret, and despite its heritage importance, the mosque is accessible from the main street and no accesses from the surrounding commercial and residential buildings which remains the mosque disconnected from its surrounding urban life. Adjacent to it lies the Hesbet Ajloun, a local souq that runs through a narrow, unpaved pedestrian passage. It is full of informal trade, but it doesn't have much space or comfort. The market trail leads to a central square that hasn't been taken care of and is now being used as a parking lot, with stalls taking up space on its edges. There are many undefined urban staircases that run through this city network. Some of these connect the souq to the main city street, which is lined with important government and commercial buildings (Ajloun Municipality, Land Department, Industry Directorate, etc.). Others connect the square to the neighborhoods nearby. There are also some stairs that connect the Souq and the Square to the nearby historical shrines, such as the Sayyid Badr Shrine and the Al-Baaj Shrine.

The main purpose of the project is to highlight Ajloun’s city center as a cohesive, place-sensitive urban adaptor to both locals and visitors that celebrates local identity while fostering sustainable tourism. Through a place-making lens, the intervention seeks to reintegrate the cultural heritage city's traditional triad—the mosque, market, and square—as socially inclusive, environmentally conscious, and economically vibrant public spaces.

Key urban and architectural strategies include:

•Create multi-social urban layers to connect the mosque's surroundings with the urban fabric.

•Connect the square of the mosque with the Hesbet Ajloun and reorganize its uses with the surrounding commercial buildings by upgrading the Souq structures using local materials and vernacular typologies, offering dignified livelihoods to vendors and boosting the local economy. The new urban design of the Souq is trying to reframe the cultural storytelling of the city’s elements (murals, signage, activities) to narrate Ajloun’s heritage and deepen visitor-local connection. A shaded structure was introduced to the Souq to provide comfort and protect people from the sun, inspired by the simple yet thoughtful textiles that local shopkeepers and street vendors have long used to shield their spaces.

•The pedestrian Souq trail was thoughtfully connected to the city's staircases, both visually and physically, through subtle yet meaningful changes—wider steps, improved materials, and added handrails—all designed to enrich the human experience of walking the city and to make access to the Souq and the square more welcoming and inclusive.

•The city square was revitalized and reimagined as a multifunctional social terrace, featuring micro-landscapes that offer shade, foster social interaction, and help reduce urban heat. These layered terraces were designed as a vibrant hub for Ajlouni life to be as a social incubator for local small businesses, community training, performances, and seasonal markets. What was once used for parking is now reclaimed as a people-centered space that reflects the spirit and needs of the community.

Ultimately, this project envisions Ajloun’s city center as a sustainable, inclusive, and story-rich place—a living heart that celebrates its heritage while nurturing its future through vibrant community life and local economic opportunity.

Project Site Location: Jordan, Ajloun(city center)
Project Coordinates on Google Maps: Great Ajloun Mosque(32.33227254243221, 35.75123164775313)-Hesbeh Ajloun(32.33138983546473, 35.75111344721958)-Central Square(32.330657478388545, 35.75032760523462)
Site Area: 14,700sqm
Project Function: An urban design project for the Ajloun city center, which includes improving the spatial and urban environment of the Grand Ajloun Mosque, the Ajloun Hisbah, and the central square:

(Intervention 1 - Great Ajloun Mosque): Redesigning the mosque courtyard and creating multi-faceted urban layers to connect the mosque's surroundings to the urban fabric(Landscape design).

(Intervention 2 – Hesbeh Ajloun, Local Souq):
1. Rehabilitate the souq: updating the market with local materials that provide comfort, sun protection, floor tiling, and redesigning facades and signs.
2. Organizing the souq land uses: arrange the shops to create an enjoyable space experience and separate daily needs from monthly and annual needs.
3. Connecting the souq with the surroundings: connecting the souq with the mosque and the central square, connecting it with the surrounding stairs, connecting it with the buildings' roofs

(Intervention 3 – Central Square):
Multi-level terraces to be a vital hub for Ajloun life, a social incubator for local small businesses, community training, art performances, seasonal bazars, and associations to solve problems and serve locals.Also, the Ajloun underground bus station, and the Re-Use building motel.
Student: Rand Ahmed Al-Shaer
Supervisor: Arch. Roaa Zidan
University: Applied Science Private University

Project Concept: Metro Space, Control, and Mental Awareness
Urban transportation systems are not just tools for spatial connection; they also function as control mechanisms where people move, are observed, and exist within continuous flows. In this context, our project “wakeline”, developed around Basmane Metro Station, aims to break the mental “sleep mode” that ordinary metro use can create. It invites users to become aware of the space around them and their movement within it.
Foucault’s theory of the “panopticon” and disciplinary society offers a critical perspective on such transportation spaces. According to Foucault, modern control in society is no longer just about visible punishment or surveillance; it works through the sense that one might always be watched. Architecture and spatial design allow the body and movement to be continuously observable, which encourages self-regulation.
Metro stations—with moving trains, dense flows of people, and visual and digital surveillance systems—are places full of control mechanisms. In these spaces, human movement, time pressure, and spatial continuity are subject to invisible but effective forms of regulation. Our project makes this hidden control visible, transforming users from routine passengers into aware, thinking subjects.
The logic behind the project can be read as follows:
Metro use becomes a repetitive, habitual action; the body and mind enter a “sleep mode” within the flow.
This ordinary flow functions as a control environment: continuous movement, visual monitoring, and spatial uncertainty involve the user in a protection-control system without their conscious awareness.
The project interrupts this routine; it pauses and directs the user, offering spaces and architectural breaks that alter perception.
In this way, the transportation space stops being only a passageway and becomes a site of intellectual and emotional experience.
Through this approach, architecture rethinks transit spaces not only in terms of function but also in terms of body, perception, emotion, and control relations. The metro, as a control space, is transformed into a stage where the user is both observed and observing, removed from habitual flow.
Spatial Scenario and Diagrammatic Choreography
The spatial design of the project follows a choreographic order that takes the user on a journey without leaving the theoretical foundation. The design progresses through stages, each offering perceptual breaks, mental pauses, or sensory intensity. The stages are described below with architectural terms and their theoretical context:
Threshold and “Subtract” Stage
The journey begins with a threshold that detaches from the urban ground. By deliberately “removing” (subtracting) part of the city surface, the user steps out of the routine metro flow and is invited to a new spatial perception. This threshold break makes the user aware of the ordinary control mechanisms, creating a sense of exit from both mental and physical control flow. Architecturally, this stage starts with a ramp or gap that separates from the urban ground, offering a change in direction and continuity.
Ramp & Amphitheater
Here, the user moves down a ramp, which slows the rhythm and emphasizes detachment from the ground. Amphitheater-shaped spaces place the user in the position of an observer or active participant, allowing them to feel the weight and effect of the space. Suspended red masses appear at this stage, acting as visually dominant, hard-to-reach elements. These intense colors and forms increase awareness of the control field and prompt the user to think about their own movement.
Structural Walls and Surface Cuts
Structural walls guide circulation, define spatial rhythm, and control light and air. Surface cuts aligned with the walls create linear openings that manipulate light and shadow. These architectural interventions break perception; the user continuously re-reads the ground and spatial structure. Conceptually, this stage reveals the invisible nature of control mechanisms, making the body, movement, and surveillance processes perceivable.
Suspended Red Masses
Hanging red volumes bring dramatic spatial intensity. They are visually dominant and physically unreachable, creating tension. Users perceive them as something to avoid rather than reach, which metaphorically represents surveillance and control. The choice of red as a color is both alerting and stopping, inviting conscious awareness. Architecturally, these masses encourage reflection, analysis, and questioning of one’s position in the space.
Courtyards and Collective Expression Areas
At the end of the journey, users reach calmer, open, and socially shared spaces: courtyards, collective amphitheaters, and gathering areas. Architecturally, this stage represents a shift from “closed system” to “open system”. From structural elements like walls, ramps, and volumes, the continuity is transformed into shared spatial experience. This phase overturns control and surveillance: users can choose their own actions, pause, and participate collectively. Thus, architecture and spatial structure become tools for transforming the control mechanism rather than simply enforcing it.

Project Area: Basmane -Izmir (Turkey) ~8,000–10.000 m² (includes ramp, amphitheatre, hanging volumes)
Suspended Volumes: safe structure, visually striking, unreachable
Floor Material: durable for high-traffic use
User Capacity: amphitheatre and shared spaces for ~600-700 people at once
Accessibility: ramps and paths for all users, tactile guidance where needed
Lighting & Openings: mix of daylight and artificial light to enhance perception
Spatial Flow: designed to guide, pause, and engage users through different stages
Studio Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ülkü İnceköse İzmir Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ebru Yılmaz İzmir Institute of Technology
Project: Burak Özcan