Wesam Al Asali Unveils Tašbik, a 256 m² Stone Installation for Amman Design Week 2026

By Amara Osei

Tašbik spans 256 square metres. That's the headline figure for Wesam Al Asali's site-specific installation, built for the open lecture courtyard — Al Mudarraj — at Amman Design Week 2026.

The project is the work of a single lead architect. Al Asali wears several hats at once: professor at IE School of Architecture & Design (IE University), co-founder and director of design and innovation at IWlab, and founder of CERCAA, the Educational Center for the Regeneration of Craft Construction, based in Valencia, Spain.

CERCAA is the tell here. An architect who founds a centre for regenerating craft construction doesn't typically deliver a lightweight pavilion. The installation sits at Amman Design Week 2026, and the year matters: this is a commissioned, dated, sited work — not a competition render.

Who built it, and with what?

Two manufacturers are credited on the project:

• Home Pillar
• Siwan Stone & Marble Co.

The second name does quiet work in the credit line. A stone and marble firm supplying a 256 m² courtyard installation suggests a heavy, materially serious build rather than a scaffold-and-fabric gesture. The architects declined to over-explain; the description comes from their own text.

Three photographers documented the work: Saifuldeen Fayez, Edmund Sumner and Sherbel Dissi. Sumner, for those who follow the circuit, is a familiar lens on contemporary architecture across the region.

What does the commission signal?

Al Asali's appointment carries weight beyond one courtyard. Amman Design Week placed a professor with a Valencia-based craft-construction research centre into its open lecture space — effectively making the installation part of the event's pedagogical stage set.

The setup is straightforward: one named architect, one site, two suppliers, three photographers, 2026. No consortium, no dilution of authorship. Al Asali holds the lead architect credit alone.

Whether Tašbik becomes a reference point for craft-led installation work depends on what visitors encounter in the Al Mudarraj courtyard when Amman Design Week opens. The materials list — stone and marble among them — suggests it's built to be argued with, not merely photographed.