With an undulating roofline that appears as if it’s sculpted from clay, the Ayla Golf Academy and Clubhouse in Aqaba, a coastal city in Jordan, is a feat of sophisticated engineering executed by artisanal means. After teaching local workers shotcrete pouring techniques, the firm and its on-site team then cast the curvaceous structure, which is evocative of both the surrounding dunes and the tents of ancient Bedouin encampments. Beneath this canopy, the 1,200-square-metre building’s openings are delineated with Corten-steel screens redolent of the mashrabiya latticework found in traditional Islamic architecture. The project, which also includes two smaller structures that contain comfort stations, is as sensitive to local vernacular as it is to its surroundings: A Jordanian artist was commissioned to mix regional pigments into the concrete, giving the Ayla Clubhouse its striking ruddy hue.

Project Ayla Golf Academy and Clubhouse Location Aqaba, Jordan Firm Oppenheim Architecture, U.S. Team Chad Oppenheim and Beat Huesler with Aleksandra Melion, TomMcKeogh, Rasem Kamal and Anthony Cerasoli Photo Rory Gardiner