Ayoub Architects Stacks Travertine Volumes over a Terraced Hillside Garden in Southern Amman

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This article covers topics related to Residential Building, Architecture, Architecture Magazine, Desert Architecture, Arabic Architecture, Architecture Project. In southern Amman, JA House embeds its living spaces in a steep slope above a public park, using deep cantilevers and green terraces to keep the oaks.

In southern Amman, JA House embeds its living spaces in a steep slope above a public park, using deep cantilevers and green terraces to keep the oaks.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Residential Building, Architecture on Oct 11, 2026

Large private houses in Amman's hillside districts usually announce themselves. They sit on top of their plots, wrapped in stone, and treat the slope as a problem to be levelled away. JA House by Ayoub Architects, completed in 2025 in southern Amman, starts from a different premise. The site is steep, it overlooks one of the city's largest public parks, and its perimeter is lined with mature oak trees. Rather than flatten the ground, the team led by Ramiz Ayoub, with design architect Samir Hallak, set the main living spaces into the terrain and spread a green terraced platform across the plot so that the landscape continues up and into the house.

At 2,037 m², this is not a modest dwelling, and we think that makes the strategy more interesting rather than less. A building of this size could easily overwhelm a hillside. What keeps it in check is a disciplined vocabulary: pale travertine volumes stacked and offset, thin floor slabs pushed out as deep cantilevers, and a ground plane that is mostly garden, deck and water. The house reads less as a single object and more as a set of horizontal shelves pulled out of the slope.

A Stone Front That Holds Back

Street-side travertine gate and boundary wall with an olive tree and stacked upper volumes behind, under a clear dusk sky

Layered stone facade seen from a curving drive, with an olive tree and purple agapanthus beside a rough-cut stone planter

Entrance steps rising beside an olive tree toward a cantilevered travertine volume in bright midday sun

Entrance front with a wide cantilevered upper floor, timber door and shallow steps, an old olive tree in warm late light

Entrance steps with lit risers between stone planters, leading to a deep cantilevered canopy and glazed living area at dusk

From the street, the first thing you meet is a travertine gate and boundary wall, with the upper volumes rising in tiers behind. The curving drive and the rough-cut stone planters set up a contrast that runs through the whole project: honed, layered cladding on the building, coarser stone at ground level where the landscape takes over. Old olive trees are placed right at the approach, so the first close-up view of the house is filtered through foliage.

The entrance is handled with restraint. Shallow steps, a timber door and a wide cantilevered upper floor create a sheltered threshold rather than a formal portico. At dusk the lit risers and planters turn the climb into a soft procession toward the glazed living area. It is a quiet arrival for a house of this scale, and that quietness feels deliberate.

Cantilevers as the Organising Gesture

Corner of stacked travertine volumes with thin cantilevered concrete slabs and a square stone column against a clear pale sky

Cantilevered travertine terrace edge with a slim canopy and square pier, overlooking pine woodland and a distant pool

Stacked travertine volumes with deep cantilevered floors above a rectangular pool and a lawn of grass pavers under a clear sky

The defining move is the slab. Thin concrete floor plates extend well past the stone walls beneath them, often resting on a single square pier or on nothing visible at all. The effect is horizontal and layered, closer to a stack of terraces than to a conventional facade. Where a terrace edge projects over the slope, it frames views straight out over pine woodland toward the park.

Seen from the pool and lawn, the stacking becomes clear. Volumes shift against each other, leaving deep shaded zones underneath and planted edges above. The grass pavers around the pool soften what would otherwise be a hard plinth, keeping the landscape reading as continuous from lawn to terrace.

Working with Amman's Hard Light

Covered terrace with a stone-clad wall, a slim vertical window and a pool edge, hard sunlight casting a diagonal shadow

Upper terrace with travertine floor and low parapet, a sharp diagonal shadow cast across the wall and a pool edge beyond

Travertine-clad courtyard corner where a cantilevered slab casts a sharp diagonal shadow across the wall and floor under clear blue sky

Amman's sun is strong and direct for much of the year, and the house uses it as a drawing tool. Overhangs cut sharp diagonal shadows across travertine walls and floors, so the facades change through the day. On the covered terrace, a slim vertical window punctuates a solid stone wall, a reminder that not every surface needs to be glass to be generous.

We would not claim a full passive climate strategy here without more information, but the deep slabs clearly do practical work. They shade terraces, protect glazing and create usable outdoor rooms that would be unbearable under open sky in summer.

Courtyards and the Sunken Garden

Sunlit courtyard with bamboo planting, a textured stone wall and a timber deck beneath overhanging floor slabs

Dusk view across a planted sunken garden toward the lit glass living room, stacked stone volumes and a pool at right

Double-height steel-framed glass wall opening to a dining room and kitchen, viewed across a timber deck between stone walls

Embedding the house in the slope produces pockets of protected outdoor space. A sunlit courtyard pairs bamboo planting with a textured stone wall and timber decking, tucked beneath overhanging floor plates. The planted sunken garden is where the concept is most legible: from here you look up at the lit living room and the stacked volumes, with the pool off to one side, and the building appears to grow out of the terraces rather than sit on them.

A double-height, steel-framed glass wall opens the dining room and kitchen onto a timber deck between stone walls. This is the hinge between interior and terrace, and the scale of the opening suggests the family spends as much time outside as in.

Living Rooms Turned to the Landscape

Living room with floor-to-ceiling glazing, a textured stone wall and a low glass-top table, trees outside in evening light

Living room with a cream sofa and timber floor facing full-height glazing and a garden pavilion in low evening light

The main living rooms are built around floor-to-ceiling glazing. One side holds a heavy textured stone wall; the other dissolves into the garden. Low furniture and pale upholstery keep sightlines clear, so the trees and evening light do most of the decorative work. It is a familiar formula, but the framing is precise, and the relationship between solid stone and open glass gives the rooms a clear orientation.

The Garden Pavilion and the Preserved Trees

Floor-to-ceiling glass wall framing a lone tree, terrace and timber pavilion beyond a peach sofa in late afternoon light

Timber gazebo with a pyramid roof on a garden hillside, with a trimmed lawn and shrubs in low evening sun

Landscape architect Lara Zuriekat's work is central to how the project reads. The decision to keep the perimeter oaks shaped the building's footprint and its terraced response to the slope. Within the garden, a timber gazebo with a pyramid roof sits on the hillside lawn, visible from the living room as a counterpoint to the hard-edged travertine volumes. A single tree framed by the glass wall becomes a focal point, which is exactly what a retained mature tree should be.

The pavilion's pitched roof is the one form that breaks the house's horizontal discipline. Some will find it at odds with the architecture; we read it as a garden folly, a small object that makes the landscape feel inhabited rather than merely viewed.

Interiors in Oak, Steel and Travertine

Black steel-framed glass partition between a white sofa and a timber kitchen, with books stacked on a glossy table

Lit fireplace in a travertine surround, flanked by built-in oak bookshelves, a round stone table and a grey sofa

Oak staircase with glass balustrade rising beside a freestanding bush-hammered stone wall, warm light on the herringbone floor

Interior designer Claude Missir carries the exterior palette inside without copying it. Black steel-framed glass partitions divide living areas from a timber kitchen while keeping light moving through the plan. A fireplace set in a travertine surround is flanked by built-in oak shelving, and a round stone table brings the material down to hand level.

The staircase is the strongest interior moment. Oak treads and a glass balustrade rise beside a freestanding bush-hammered stone wall, with warm light catching a herringbone floor. The wall's rough finish acts as a vertical spine and a reminder of the hillside the house is cut into.

Plans and Drawings

Site plan drawing showing the building footprint, pool, landscaping and surrounding contour lines on an angular plot

Site plan drawing of a compact house footprint with a rectangular pool, terraces and curved driveway set within contour lines and trees

Basement floor plan drawing showing service rooms, parking and a curved ramp, with a legend of numbered spaces at lower left

Ground floor plan drawing showing living spaces opening to a terrace, pool and garden, with a numbered room legend at lower left

Elevation drawing of the eastern south facade, with a long cantilevered slab stepping down a sloped site among tall pines

Elevation drawing of the northern east facade, showing a long glazed ground floor beneath stacked upper volumes and surrounding tree canopy

Elevation drawing of the southern west facade, with terraced lower levels, a retaining wall and a planted roof edge

Elevation drawing of the western north facade, with the house sitting on a steep slope beside stepped terraces and trees

Section drawing cutting through the multi-level house, showing floor slabs, glazed upper rooms and basement spaces dug into the hillside

Section drawing of a multi-level house cut into a steep terraced slope, with a basement volume below and faint trees on the hillside

The site plans show the house occupying a relatively compact footprint on an angular plot, with the pool, terraces and curved driveway arranged along the contours and among the retained trees. The basement plan reveals how much of the program is hidden below grade: service rooms, parking and a curved ramp sit beneath the garden, which explains how a building of this area keeps such a light presence above ground.

The ground floor plan confirms the outward orientation, with living spaces opening directly onto terrace, pool and garden. The elevations and sections are the most revealing drawings. They show long cantilevered slabs stepping down the slope, retaining walls and terraced lower levels, a planted roof edge, and basement volumes dug into the hillside. Read together, they make the case that the terracing is structural and spatial, not just a landscaping layer applied afterward.

Why This Project Matters

Amman's hillside suburbs are filling up with large stone villas, and most of them treat topography and existing trees as obstacles. JA House shows a more considered approach for the same typology: bury the bulk, keep the trees, and let the roofs and terraces read as landscape. The scale of the house is not hidden, but it is distributed across the slope so that the dominant impression from the garden is of planted platforms and shaded edges rather than walls.

It is not a radical project, and it does not need to be. Its value lies in consistency. The cantilevered slab, the travertine volume and the terraced garden are repeated at every scale, from the street gate to the staircase, and that discipline is what lets a 2,037 m² residence sit comfortably above a public park. For architects working on steep urban plots in the region, this is a useful precedent in how far terrain and trees can drive the form.

JA House by Ayoub Architects. Location: Amman, Jordan. Area: 2,037 m². Year: 2025. Photography: Ayoub Architects.

About the Studio

Ayoub Architects

Official website of Ayoub Architects, one of the studios behind this project.

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