This SOS complex for orphaned children is located in the residential outskirts of the city of Aqaba, on the Red Sea. A prerequisite of SOS Villages International is that they should be built within an existing social environment, so that they are not isolated from the urban context of the town or city they are in. This was the second such village to be constructed in Jordan; the first was in the capital, Amman, and a third, in Irbid, was completed in 2000. (All three were designed by Jafar Tukan & Partners.) The architecture is attractive, well designed and sincere, and represents a modern interpretation of the local vernacular stone building.
“SOS Children's Village.” In Modernity and Community: Architecture in the Islamic World, edited by Philippa Baker, 113-124. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
Aga Khan Award for Architecture