Amman- 2 March 2022
Arch. Raya Nazi, a graduate of the School of Architecture and Built Environment (SABE) at the German Jordanian University (GJU), won third place in the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) Award 2021 for her graduation project (Guardians of Memory), and supervised by the industrial professor at SABE, Arch. Tha’er Qub’a.
Sixteen universities in Jordan and Palestine participated in the competition. Twenty-two projects were longlisted, including Arch. Raya's and Arch. Salah Al-Din Al-Rawashdah's projects. Al-Rawashdah is also a GJU graduate. The title of his project (Amman Agricultural Plot) was supervised Arch. Tha’er Qub’a.
About her project, Raya said that the (Guardians of Memory) is a response to the "deal of the century" and the saying “the old die and the young forget.” She added, "The project aims to preserve the Palestinian identity by collecting the memories and stories of the great Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian camps by creating repeat units, (The Source of Memories) consists of a popular café and a community kitchen where adult refugees gather and work to collect their memories, stories, and then transfer those memories to the (Tank of Memory Museum), which transforms these memories and stories from intangible memories into tangible materials that contribute to preserving the Palestinian identity."
For his part, Arch. Qub’a stated that the German Jordanian University is always present in the list of the winners of this award over the past years, which confirms the constant and distinguished level of GJU's graduates.
About the winning project, he stressed the quality and nature of the selected graduation projects that require high awareness of the culture and employing the advantages of the designs that go beyond beautiful buildings, contribute to the development of societies, and create solutions of social, economic, and national problems.
