Is it a building, an infrastructure, or a patch of landscape? As a matter of fact, “Steps of Amman” in Jordan is a proposal for a hybrid structure, one simultaneously taking on architectural and infrastructural traits at once, while restoring a piece of the city’s undulating terrain. The structure furthermore combines a range of public functions: an urban square in form of a stair and an urban library embedded within one of the city’s hills. More than just a project for a building, the design makes a plea for reinforcing the civic role of architecture in contemporary culture. Though monumental in its scale and mass, the building is hardly noticeable as a structure in its own right, for it seamlessly merges with the city’s topography. Below ground, users discover another world, one dedicated to the promotion of culture as public good.

Culture, as a form of interaction and key activity of civic life, evolves as the central theme of the design proposition. It is in this regard that the jury enthusiastically applauded the architectural and spatial qualities of the structure as a carefully crafted piece of civic architecture within the city fabric of Amman. Of particular importance is the sequence of public spaces both on top and below the stair, the latter potentially to be read as an amalgam of the Spanish Steps in Rome (though less lavish) and the Villa Malaparte in Capri (though less sculptural in its appearance). Additionally, the jury valued the beauty of the drawings that truly empower architecture as an art in its own right.