Consultant for the Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit – GIZ, in Jordan. Mario Schmid worked as an advisor in the project Improvement of Green Infrastructure in Jordan through labor intensive measures.
His main tasks were:
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- Supervision of financing contracts with international non-governmental organisations (INGOs)
- Collaboration with landscape architecture firms and support for the development of designs for public spaces in different locations in Jordan
- Focal point of the project for GIZ’s construction department
Selected Projects Jordan
- Public space Amman: sitting where sitting is required; an artistic intervention in a semi-public space for international employees as a project presentation.
- Revitalization and reopening of a park in the municipality of Quweirah in collaboration with the Italian non-governmental organization AVSI. The municipality of Quweirah is located 40 km north of Aqaba on the desert highway in Wadi Hisma, the desert region in southern Jordan. The landscape of the area can sustain a nomadic subsistence lifestyle, which in turn allows for regeneration of natural resources. Bedouin ethos allows for a balance of consumption and renewal. A wonderful achievement of the project was it to reopen the park, which was created in the 1990s and not accessible to the public ever since. Especially women and children are using the park.
- Photo documentation of open space furniture: Research work for a modular furniture system in public space in Jordan in cooperation with the design office MINIMALIST, Amman.
- Revitalization of an existing park in Sarhan. Sarhan is a border town with Syria in northern Jordan. In collaboration with the landscape architecture firm Baljon, Amsterdam, as well as in consultation with administrative employees, council members and political representatives of this municipality, an existing park with extensive sports and play facilities was designed near a mosque and a children’s library.
- Conservation measures and visitor guidance measures in the Ramsar Protected Area Azraq in cooperation with the Royal Society for Nature Conservation RSCN. Azraq is a valuable oasis in the east of the country, located between a limestone desert in the west and a basalt desert in the east. The wetland reserve is an important station for migratory birds on the African-Eurasian flight route. In 2018, the reserve was included in the IUCN Green List for Protected and Preserved Areas. The protected area suffers mainly from excessive water abstraction. In cooperation with RSCN, visitor guidance measures like a footbridge were created, reeds were trimmed or observation points in natural building methods out of clay reed and wood were built.
Projects GIZ, Jordan
