Al Jabal Park in Jabal Amman was transformed into a communal, playful and inclusive space in 2023, with an initiative from the nearby school; Ahliyya and Mutran. The school’s Transformation Initiative rethinks traditional education by embedding community engagement, wellbeing, and local learning within its core. Through this approach, the initiative critiques neoliberal education models and works toward reclaiming public spaces like parks as active learning spaces and community hubs.
Park condition before the intervention
Jabal Park after rehabilitation
The initiative to transform the park was started by the school, but mainly through engaging the students, the community, Greater Amman Municipality (GAM), and through funding from Al Etihad bank. Through research, participatory processes, and learning by doing, the project reimagines the park not just as a playground, but as a shared urban commons rooted in collective efforts and youth voices. The existing park, from which the idea grew, was a place of concern for the general community and the school. It had been run down, lacked maintenance, and as one of the only parks in the area, it did not provide a safe nor suitable space for the residents around.
The school worked alongside its students and the greater community around them. They collaborated with active social initiatives such as Hamzet Wasel, where they organised workshops between students from the many schools in the area, both private and public, to discover their neighbourhood and understand it through play, with treasure hunts, walkalongs, and prototyping. The students would end the workshop in the park, and in groups they would draw and reimagine the park as they wish it to be.
Workshops in the park between students, locals, and school representatives
Their approach reveals a desire for more playful, meaningful engagement with urban spaces, as well as an initiative towards shared agency. Through play and imagination, their approach fostered a sense of ownership and inclusion between the different communities in the area. The school emphasises the importance for education institutions to go beyond school boundaries, to act as nodes of public life, rooted within their surroundings and in community engagement.