AMMAN — Architect Thaer Quba believes that architecture is
not about designing masses and forms; it’s about designing spaces.
Husband and father of two; Farah and Omar, founder and
managing director of Thaer Quba Consultant Architects and industrial professor
at the German Jordanian University, Quba has dedicated his career to design
spaces that influence people, improve their quality of life, and enrich their
experiences.
اضافة اعلان
As Quba grew up drawing black and white political
caricature, he did not find it difficult to choose a discipline when he started
university in 1984. He spent the five academic years in the University of
Jordan’s architecture faculty hung up on details, admiring modernism and trying
to define the Jordanian-regional architectural identity.
Modernist Jafar Tukan, who was a lead juror on Quba’s
graduation project panel, offered him a job on the day he presented his
project, which is where he acquired his appreciation and pride in the
profession.
Since establishing his business in 1994, Quba says he
witnessed the change in the property market as it shifted towards a more
universal style, overshadowing the regional and Jordanian architecture
character.
Quba describes it as “the human identity overpowering the
climate and sense of belonging to the place.”
“Globalization has led to the declination in quality of all
types of arts, including architecture. Architecture has to evolve because the
world changes, as do we, but the main principles and ethics should remain
clear. It is not either or, I can build using concrete, which is a cheap local
material, and an architect in Japan can use it too!” Quba told Jordan
News in a recent interview.
The bright side of globalization for Quba is the
accessibility of information to everyone, as well as the ease and affordability
of travel, which, for architects, leads to artistic awareness, and improves
their aesthetic appreciation and knowledge.
On another front, and completely by chance, Quba started an
academic career when he was invited to take part in panel jury at a university
and found that he thoroughly enjoyed it. He worked as a part-time tutor at the
University of Jordan between 2004 and 2011, and as an industrial professor at
the German Jordanian University since 2012.
With a new found passion for teaching, Quba said he started
teaching “the way he always wanted to be taught,” noting that he grew as an
architect by dealing with architecture students on a daily basis.
The benefit was mutual, he said; the students learned from
his experience and he was exposed to new ways of thinking and was able to stay
up to date with the modern world of the young.
Tha’er says he witnessed firsthand the direct impact
Covid-19 had on architecture, and how people’s perception of their homes
changed.
“When the pandemic started, people flocked to architecture
offices to adjust their homes. They realized how unlivable their houses are! I
used to spend a lot of time trying to convince clients to add swimming pools,
or enlarge the terrace and garden instead of the guest room, now they’re the
ones suggesting that themselves,” Quba said.
Quba is a winner of the international Dewan Award for
Architecture 2019’s first prize for the design of Al Umma Park, as well as the
first prize of JWICO showroom competition 2009, and Engineers Park Competition
2003.
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