PechaKucha Amman: A Night of Creative Chit-Chat

September 1st 2018 – The best way to welcome the first month of autumn is with a fresh take on the traditional, where first ever PechaKucha night in Amman was hosted at Darat Al Funun. Seven of Amman’s creative minds came together to speak about their projects and careers, with a twist on the typical presentation style.

Architect and organizer Nama’a Qudah talked to artmejo about the principle and purpose of PechaKucha and how this style of speech delegating is becoming increasingly popular universally.

In this fast paced world, it’s becoming increasingly hard to grab people’s attention let alone sustain it for longer than a few minutes. Understanding that, PechaKucha founders, Architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, designed this presentation format who’s purpose is to deliver conclusive and short talks by designers and architects, in a manner that is also fun and enjoyable to the audience. Give a designer a mic, ask them about their work, their passion and love for what they do will ignite an elongated talk that could last for hours. With PechaKucha, designers are provoked to be brief and use the visual material to round up a full story in 20 images, each timed at 20 seconds, resulting in a talk that lasts for just 6.6 minutes.

PechaKucha has spread to more than 1000 cities around the world, and has finally been launched in Amman this September

This format is now also used in universities, job interviews, and seminars as a conscience method of delivering information.

PechaKucha Amman event September 1st 2018

Among the participating speakers were these popular names under the title of The Design Masters from various professional backgrounds:

Ammar Khammash – Architect

Rula Yaghmour – Architect/Designer

Basel Uraiqat – Architect

Sarah Asaad – Fashion Designer

Widad Shafakoj – Film Maker

Hanan Shahin – Architect/Event Planner

Rabee Zureikat– Social Entrepreneur

Ammar Khammash during his talk, Amman, Jordan

The spectrum of careers and success stories were discussed. Architecture was a highlighted topic at PechaKucha since four of the speakers had practiced the latter as a vocation. Ammar Khammash shared his knowledge and passion for geology and earth sciences as a basis to the framework of one of Amman’s top and most referred to architects. His most known works are the Wadi Mujib Visitor Center and Wild Jordan Nature Center. A different approach was shown by architect and artist Basel Uraiqat and his talk about the chaos of Amman. Uraiqat stunned us with his Amman Design Week “X3” series of reflective surfaces and unorthodox vision on design to reflect the chaos of his city.

Promoting sustainability and efficient re-usage techniques, Rula Yaghmour’s story of furniture design clarified how stone scrapes from the outcome of finished buildings are sculpted into her current product line Kutleh.

Rula Yaghmour during her talk, Amman, Jordan

Co-founder of Nut and Ptah Sarah Asaad, talks about the Amman-based prime destination for fashionistas and style and the experience she shares with her sister on the role fashion plays in one’s character, perception, and life.

Diverting from the materialism aspect of design, we witnessed some humanitarian and community-based startups and initiatives at PechaKucha. Rabee Zureikat brings us closer to a glimpse on Zikra Initiative, an initiative started in order to motivate rural populations in Jordan that have limited access to basic amenities and facilities. The achievements of this contribution is the generation of income, mobilizing labour and social development starting from the individual level.

Widad Shafakoj during her talk, Amman, Jordan

In the same context of Jordanian society, filmmaker Widad Shafakoj discussed her most recent documentary project If You Are Meant To Kill Me which talks about the struggles that Jordanian women go through when faced with the law of honour murders, and how this is important in order to spread awareness and make grounding changes to improve the situation.

Lastly, director of The Atelier  Hanan Shahin speaks about her transition from working in architecture to seeking and establishing a passion of event management through customization and the intricacy of making each event she works with a memorable one for all.

The speakers with PechaKucha organizers

This year’s first PechaKucha Night in Amman was a truly remarkable way to start hosting further more similar gatherings in the future, since it is a modern way of updating audiences on upcoming enterprises and opportunities from different fields, as well as encouraging the youth to continuously implement unique ideas. Stay tuned for more PechaKucha nights coming soon!