Our Practice

Established in 2018, TAYYŪN is a creative research and ecological design studio connecting communities, organizations, businesses, and governments to innovative nature-based solutions. Our mission is to restore native biodiversity, empower local communities, and build resilience through our expertise in urban forestry, ecological design, regenerative agriculture, and grassroots biodiversity action.

Through our projects and training programs, we adopt a multi-disciplinary and holistic approach that synthesizes cutting-edge research, international best practices and indigenous wisdom. Our work celebrates the remarkably rich native ecologies and the time-tested ancestral wisdom of land stewardship, so as to reveal local abundance as the foundation of sustainable development in urban and rural environments.

Video Credit: TAYYŪN + Abeer Bayazidi

Our Team

Deema Assaf • Founding Partner at TAYYŪN • An architect, Miyawaki forester, and ecological urbanism consultant. With over 15 years of experience, Deema’s work focuses on regenerative design, urban ecosystem restoration, native habitat creation, and indigenous flora research. Deema has delivered lectures, talks and keynotes at universities and international conferences, and has developed teaching material and publications on nature-based solutions and integration of native ecosystems. Her work on native forest creation and urban rewilding has been featured on Euronews, Al-Jazeera, and BBC, among others.

Yaman Amr • Managing Partner at TAYYŪN • An architect, permaculture expert, and regenerative design specialist, Yaman’s experience spans ecological design, sustainable development, holistic land management, and environmental education. His journey spans the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, having designed and implemented numerous projects on innovative water management, soil regeneration, climate-resilient food systems, and native ecosystem design. Yaman is passionate about eco-education and empowering communities with regenerative practices, and has developed teaching material and manuals on regenerative agriculture principles and techniques.

Photo by Annie Sakkab for SUGi

Residents, students and volunteers participating in community forest planting

Native seeds are harvested by our team and propagated by our partner Mujeb Nursery

Restoring urban brownfield land and empty plots into dense pockets of urban forests

And/or used teaching material developed by our team about native ecology and permaculture