Dina Haddadin

Dina Haddadin is a Jordanian architect and amultidiscplinaryvisual artist whose work fluidly bridges architecture, contemporary art, and urban research. She is the founder and principal architect of Kayn.studio, a hybrid design practice based in Amman, Jordan, recognized for its adaptive reuse strategies, material experimentation, and emotionally resonant spatial interventions in Jordan and around the region.Her multidisciplinary work explores themes of temporality, transformation, craft, materiality and memory, drawing on the layered landscapes of the Arab region. Through installations, printmaking, performance, and architectural projects, Haddadin engages questions of ecological precarity, urban erasure, and the politics of space—often blending conceptual rigor with deeply tactile and tangible, site-responsive design.She holds a BA in Architecture and studied Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York in 2008. A recipient of the AFAC (Arab Fund for Arts and Culture) Visual Arts grant, and a second prize winner for the public art categoryDiaal-Azzawi Prize for Public Art in 2022 for her project “Symphony of absence”. She was one of the founding curators of the inaugural Amman Design Week in 2016 and was the Chief Design Officer for its second edition in 2018.In 2023, she was commissioned byIthra– KingAbdulazizCenter for World Culture in Saudi Arabia to produce the installation "Fine to Finite" for the exhibitionNet Zero, which is now part of their permanent collection.In 2024, Haddadin presented "Sabil.01" at the Doha Design Biennale—a design installation reflecting on generosity, water, and ritual in dry urban contexts. The work was commissioned and acquired by Qatar Museums for its permanent collection.Haddadin had several solo exhibitions and her work was exhibited in numerous exhibitions and Biennales such as Mathaf - Qatar Museums, The Mail Box Project (2024), Qatar Museums for ARAB DESIGN NOW (2024), Lakum Gallery, Riyadh (2022), Villa Romana, Italy (2021), Darat Al Funun (2023), Ithra King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (2023), Colombia University (GSAPP) (2018),  Fifth Beijing International Art Biennale (2014). Her pieces reside in public and private collections such as “Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdallah” and the “Royal Court”, andhave appeared in auctions at__Christie’s and Sotheby’s__.Across both her artistic and architectural endeavors, Haddadin continues to explore how space becomes a medium for storytelling, critique, and shared cultural futures. 

The Interview

What inspired you to pursue a career in design?
I was inspired to pursue it as a career because design, especially in our region, is not only aesthetic; it is a form of responsibility and critique. Through architecture and installations I can question erasure, highlight what is overlooked, and propose other ways of living together. The fact that design can move between the intimate scale of a detail and the scale of territory—and that it can open conversations about memory, ecology, and justice—is what keeps me committed to it as a lifelong practice. In our context, design is both a poetic and political act—it lets me care for places, question our role as architects, and imagine more generous futures.

How does your cultural or regional context influence your design work?
My cultural and regional context inspires me through the layered, fragile condition of cities in the Arab world, where memory and erasure coexist. The climate, water scarcity, and rich craft traditions of the region push me toward adaptive reuse, climate-responsive strategies, and material experimentation that remain grounded in local rituals and stories.

What is your design philosophy or approach to creative problem-solving?
My works holds questions around inclusivity, architectural impermanence or the obsession with eternity and power. From the traditional painting and printmaking to the experimental performative and spatial design and art installations, my works creates multi-layered works that examine research-based issues on the 'Right to the City’ in a landscape of transient urbanization, changing geographies and imagined places.

Describe a project you're most proud of and why it's meaningful to you.
Im proud of my latest design installation Sabil, as it merges between craft, community, sustainability and the temporality of the structure. Creating a closed loop of existence – one that leaves no footprint, one that gives nature time to heal, to regrow, and to flourish.

Who are your design influences or mentors, and how have they shaped your work?
My design influences are less about specific names and more about approaches. I’m inspired by regional practices that treat architecture as a form of listening—to landscape, climate, and memory—and by multidisciplinary practitioners who move between art and architecture. Just as important are the craftspeople, collaborators, and teachers I work with; they’ve shaped how I think about materials, labour, and time, and they remind me that design is always a collective, ongoing conversation. my most consistent mentors have been the people I work with day to day—craftspeople, collaborators, curators. Conversations with stonemasons, metalworkers, and fabricators shape how I think about detail, labour, and how materials age over time. Curators and peers influence the questions I ask, In that sense, my thinking is shaped by an ongoing dialogue rather than a single “master figure.”

What role do you think design plays in shaping communities and culture in the MENASA region?
The way we design today affects our ecological footprint, our relationship to resources, and how we relate to each other in increasingly fragmented cities. For me, design is both poetic and political: it can repair, amplify forgotten stories, imagine more generous ways of sharing space. Design comes with a great responsibility.

How do you stay inspired and continue to evolve your creative practice?
I stay inspired by staying close to places that inspires me wether its in my city or out in nature, conversations with people and observing everyday rituals—while moving between my art and architecture practices. Reading, research, and conversations with collaborators keep the work grounded, and I try to allow pauses so ideas can mature instead of forcing them.

What are the biggest challenges facing designers in the MENASA region today?
I feel that many of the biggest challenges of our time are deeply interconnected. We are living through ecological collapse and resource scarcity, especially visible in our region through drought, heat, and fragile ecosystems—consequences of a long extractive relationship with land and water. At the same time, rapid urban transformation, demolition, and generic development are producing urban erasure and inequality, where not only buildings disappear but also everyday rituals, informal commons, and a sense of belonging. Layered onto this is the reality of displacement and fractured identities, with communities living between borders and interrupted histories, constantly having to reinvent what “home” means. All of this unfolds in a moment where our attention and common ground are also under pressure—our lives are increasingly mediated by screens and speed, making it harder to be present, to listen, and to share a physical commons where differences can coexist.

Works

Website
www.dinahaddadin.com
www.kayn.studio
Socials
@dinahaddadin
@kayn_studio