“When I go back home, I can build one myself.”

IBTASEM playground in Lebanon

CatalyticAction

 

Situation

The Syrian crisis is the world’s largest refugee crisis for almost a quarter of a century under UNCHR’s mandate. It has devas­tated lives; uproo­ting fami­lies from their homes and forcing them to leave the country to find safety else­where. The conflict has seen the move­ment of over 1.2 million refu­gees to Lebanon, half of which are children. The UN, diffe­rent nation states and inter­na­tional NGO’s have deli­vered some support but refugee Informal Tented Sett­le­ments (ITS) do not provide a vibrant and safe atmo­sphere for children to grow up in.

IBTASEM

In August 2015, Cata­ly­ti­cAc­tion completed the cons­truc­tion of the pilot project ‘IBTASEM’. This project consists of a play­ground design for situa­tions of emer­gency response.

Children have the right to a safe child­hood, an educa­tion and to play. IBTASEM play­ground has been desi­gned in response to the large number of Syrian children now living as refu­gees in Lebanon. Visi­ting the informal tented sett­le­ments in the town of Bar Elias, Lebanon, as well as the schools that have been built to provide educa­tion, a main realiza­tion was that there was a lack of space solely dedi­cated to children. A space that would simply allow them to be children, such as a play­ground, such as IBTASEM!

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Opportunities

The inno­va­tive process behind this project is not merely in its supply of playing faci­li­ties, like swings and slides, but rather in its explo­ra­tion of oppor­tu­ni­ties that enable the children to design the play­ground them­selves. IBTASEM play­ground has been desi­gned and built with the input of the children since the incep­tion of its idea. Adop­ting parti­ci­pa­tory art and archi­tec­ture in the process prio­ri­tizes the children.

Playing is what children do best, so imagine using the act of play in design prac­tices as an empowe­ring tool for commu­ni­ties.

Realisation

The play­ground has been built with the help of volun­teers who parti­ci­pated in the inter­na­tional Design-Build Work­shop Lebanon 2015. The work­shop was divided into two phases, with the first one focu­sing on buil­ding the modular struc­ture of the play­ground, and the second one being more concerned with the play­ground compon­ents and its comple­tion. This allowed for a multi­cul­tural and inter­di­sci­pli­nary process.

The children deve­loped a sense of owner­ship towards the play­ground. They knew that their role was very important;

“I am here to build the play­ground with you, so when I go back to Syria, I can build one myself.”

Shahd, 5 year old.

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Temporary structure

The play­ground is desi­gned so that is easy to assemble, disas­semble, trans­port and then either re-assemble or re-purpose. It was important for the local partner that the play­ground be a tempo­rary struc­ture. The design consists of a wooden struc­ture that is modular and assem­bled on site. Inspired by the locals’ reuse of mate­rial; the design sees the use of vege­table crates, tyres, ropes, etc.

Partner

The play­ground space is not limited to its pillars, it is rather an expo­nen­tia­tion of what the children make out of it. Cata­ly­ti­cAc­tion part­nered with the basket­ball free­style group Da Move (www.damove.com), who provided a two days trai­ning to the children. This presented a great oppor­tu­nity for the children to use the play­ground in a fun and educa­tional way. The inau­gu­ra­tion day was a cele­bra­tion of the day all the children were able to play freely in the play­ground, as well as enjoy a basket­ball perfor­mance by Da Move and the talents and skills of some of the children.

Right To Play Lebanon (www.righttoplay.com) supported the project by dona­ting basket­balls, as well as provi­ding trai­ning for three of the school­te­a­chers on how to use play for educa­tion, ther­e­fore effi­ci­ently using the play­ground space.

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Catalyst

The pilot project acted as a cata­lyst by trig­ge­ring the aware­ness for a much-needed space for these children in a time of crisis. Curr­ently, the team of Cata­ly­ti­cAc­tion is in the ongoing process of deve­lo­ping future play­grounds with local part­ners in Lebanon.
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We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Designer

Cata­ly­ti­cAc­tion

Photos

Lorenzo Conti
Ronan Glynn
Odys­seas Mourtzou­chos
Joana Dabaj

Partner

Da Move
Right To Play Lebanon
American Univer­sity of Beirut (AUB) Center for Civic Enga­ge­ment and Commu­nity Service (CCECS)
Kayany Foun­da­tion
ARUP
Vimala Foun­da­tion

Opening

2015

Text

 Cata­ly­ti­cAc­tion

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