Urban95: Jordan

Peer learning between Istanbul and Amman

The work began as a series of learning exchanges. Starting in 2020, Superpool connected lessons emerging from Istanbul with the Van Leer Foundation’s Jordan team and Majlisna for Societal Development, creating a platform for shared learning and exploring how these ideas could be adapted to the Jordanian context. From there, the collaboration evolved around jointly defined priorities.

Training playworkers

Between 2023 and 2025, Superpool partnered with Pop-Up Adventure Play to introduce playwork as a new professional practice in Jordan. Together, the two organisations delivered three cohorts of training, combining mentoring with hands-on play sessions to equip local practitioners to facilitate play in streets, parks and community spaces. The collaboration also developed a growing collection of Arabic-language playwork resources to support future practice.

Nature playground pilot in Aqaba

As part of the wider Urban95 programme in Jordan, the Aqaba playground was developed as a pilot to explore what nature-based play could mean in the Jordanian context. Rather than relying on conventional playground equipment, the design uses sand, rocks, planting, small slopes, wooden structures and shaded sensory areas to encourage open-ended exploration and physical challenge. Developed for children aged 0–5 and their caregivers, it shows how early-years play environments can respond to Jordan’s arid climate, local materials and construction capacity while creating richer opportunities for children to engage with nature. See Aqaba Playscape.

A child priority zone for Al-Barha

In November 2023, Superpool led a design sprint in Irbid to develop a child-centred transformation strategy for the Al-Barha neighbourhood. Working with municipal partners, local organisations and residents, the process combined spatial analysis, mobility studies and community engagement to identify the neighbourhood's key challenges and opportunities. Published in 2024, the Urban95 Strategy Document sets out a phased roadmap for creating a child priority zone, including safer school streets, redesigned intersections, traffic calming, park connections and temporary play spaces.

The first child priority street in Jordan

In 2024, Superpool led the design and delivery of the first Urban95 street transformation in Amman, alongside the Zaha Cultural Center in Khalda. Developed through a hands-on process with municipal partners, local organisations and contractors, the project served as both a public space intervention and a learning platform for future street transformations across Jordan.

Safer school zones

As Urban95 expanded its focus on safer streets, Superpool supported the Van Leer Foundation team and municipal partners in developing and implementing school-zone projects in Amman and Irbid. In Irbid, Greater Irbid Municipality transformed the streets around Rufaida Al Aslamyeh School, while in Amman, Greater Amman Municipality developed its Safe School Zones Initiative, including a pilot around Um Al-Summaq North Secondary School.

Superpool contributed design advice and technical guidance, supporting the teams at key stages of testing and implementation. The work explores how street design, traffic calming, safer crossings and better organised arrival and departure can make the everyday journey to school safer for children and caregivers.

Urban95 exhibition

The Urban95 Jordan exhibition brought together the growing body of work taking place across Jordan, making connections between projects, partners and approaches that had developed over several years. Creating the exhibition became an opportunity to consolidate this experience and articulate a more coherent picture of Urban95 in Jordan — what had been learned, what was working and how the different initiatives connected. This process laid the foundation for the Urban95 Jordan Toolkit, which developed these lessons into practical models and tools that could be shared and scaled.

Urban95 Jordan Toolkit

The Urban95 Jordan Toolkit brings together knowledge developed through several years of Urban95 work across Jordan with lessons from the global programme. Developed by Superpool through a collaborative process with local practitioners and partners, it translates this experience into practical models, guidance and tools that municipalities and organisations can use to plan, design, implement and evaluate child- and caregiver-friendly initiatives. From family centres and playwork to nature playgrounds, safer streets and strategic planning, the toolkit provides a practical framework for moving from individual projects towards more systematic and scalable change across Jordan. Read the Urban95 Jordan Toolkit.

Urban95 is a project of the Van Leer Foundation