AIA Chicago Foundation to Current 2025 Martin Roche Travel Scholarship Recipient Zaineh Ghanayem, “Temporary Permanence: The Urbanization of Jordan’s Refugee Camps”

Zaineh will current her findings to the AIA Chicago group as a part of AIA Chicago’s Award Ceremony. Her work can even be on exhibit at MAS Context, November 14 – December 5, 2026.

For media inquiries: David Chase, dchase@aiachicago.org, (312) 376-2745

September 3, 2026, CHICAGO: The AIA Chicago Foundation, the charitable, impartial not-for-profit group that helps scholarships, grants, and awards to strengthen Chicago’s architectural group, will current Zaineh Ghanayem, the 2025 recipient of the Martin Roche Travel Scholarship, as a part of AIA Chicago’s Award Ceremony, the place she’s going to share findings from her impartial examine, “Temporary Permanence: The Urbanization of Jordan’s Refugee Camps.” Her work can even be featured in an exhibit at MAS Context from November 14 by means of December 5, 2026.

Established in 1926 by architect Martin Roche, FAIA, the Martin Roche Travel Scholarship helps impartial examine of structure overseas. Roche, a key determine within the rise of the Chicago School of Architecture, designed among the metropolis’s earliest tall buildings. He partnered with William Holabird, FAIA, in 1881, forming Holabird & Roche in 1883. In his will, Roche directed that proceeds from his artwork assortment help structure college students learning overseas. Past recipients have explored matters starting from brownfield redevelopment in Germany to the hyperlink between design and crime in Medellín, and modernist non secular structure in Italy.

Ghanayem’s analysis investigates how refugee camps in Jordan have advanced from momentary shelters into everlasting city settlements, revealing the connection between structure, displacement, and belonging. Over the previous seven a long time, Jordan has hosted refugees from Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Sudan; many camps, as soon as outlined by emergency planning and humanitarian reduction, have grown into dense, self-built neighborhoods that now mix seamlessly with Jordan’s city material. Through images, drawings, and fashions developed on-site within the Irbid, Zarqa, Wehdat, and Al-Hussein refugee camps, Ghanayem’s examine connects architectural documentation with lived narratives, contributing to broader discussions on displacement, informality, and concrete resilience.

“Immigrants and refugees are integral to Jordan’s cultural and economic life, shaping its cities and redefining what belonging means in an urban context,” Ghanayem stated of her work. “Observing how these communities create permanence out of transience will inform design lessons about density, adaptability, and collective living.”

Zaineh Ghanayem is an architectural designer initially from Palestine and born in Jordan, who moved to Chicago at age seven. She earned each her undergraduate and graduate levels from the University of Illinois Chicago, the place she got here to view structure as greater than the design of buildings — a self-discipline that explores how areas can mirror and reply to the complexities of human expertise. Her perspective is closely influenced by her background and identification, and he or she sees structure as a method to amplify marginalized voices and contribute to the broader discourse on inclusion and justice.

The Martin Roche Travel Scholarship awards a ,000 journey grant to 1 undergraduate or graduate pupil enrolled in a NAAB-accredited structure program on the University of Illinois Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, or the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Applicants will need to have a school advisor and suggest an impartial examine of an architecture-related subject in a rustic aside from the United States that doesn’t qualify for diploma credit score. All proposals are evaluated by a five-member jury comprised of three AIA Chicago Foundation Board of Trustees members and two training structure professionals who are usually not members of the Board. Following their journey, every recipient presents their work to the AIA Chicago group and is acknowledged on AIA Chicago’s communication channels, in Chicago Architect journal, and on the Award Ceremony.

The AIA Chicago Foundation is a 501(c)3 group dedicated to investing in Chicago’s subsequent technology of architectural change-makers by awarding scholarships, grants, and recognition. The AIA Chicago Foundation is affiliated with AIA Chicago, the collective voice of practically 4,000 licensed architects, rising professionals, structure college students, and allied professionals within the Chicagoland space.

###