Happy Bedouin House
Petra, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
With host Khaled, French artist Estelle, and many local children we worked on the front entrance and courtyard of Khalid’s family home and Airbnb.
For traditional Bedouin people the priority for any vegetation is to feed animals and neighbouring animals easily enter properties. For this reason as well as a lack of time and access to materials, the focus was on creating a safety barrier for the children on the recently constructed terrace, and painting a mural to soften the grey and hard surfaces..
This extremely challenging environment has almost no topsoil and minimal rainfall. A long term garden or any planting would require protection from animals and permanent irrigation, or wicking beds. Burying food waste in the ground will improve local soil and return essential nutrient to the soil. Petra is isolated in the high mountains so building materials are difficult to come, recycling is essential and everything is reused until it’s total decay. For vegetation we planted Succulents and hardy plants found in the desert.
