Play Without Borders

Aqaba is located at the nort­hern end of the gulf of the same name and at a geogra­phi­cally remar­kable point. Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia meet here in a very small space. The Jorda­nian port city is a holiday resort, a trading hub, and a special economic zone. At the same time, the poli­tical tensions and conflicts of the region are never very far away—during the assembly of the box, they were even felt in the form of rocket impacts.

Espe­ci­ally in such an envi­ron­ment, the importance of play can hardly be overe­sti­mated. Playing creates moments of ligh­the­ar­ted­ness and gives children and young people a piece of ever­yday life back. It also helps them process expe­ri­ences, discover their own abili­ties, nego­tiate rules, and build trust in others. Article 31 of the UN Conven­tion on the Rights of the Child ther­e­fore expli­citly describes play, recrea­tion, and leisure as a child’s right. The KuKuk Box Aqaba trans­lates this right quite tangibly into ramps, slides, and clim­bing elements.

The project was funded by “SOS Child­ren’s Villages Inter­na­tional.”

The SOS Child­ren’s Village Aqaba was opened in 1991. The Pales­ti­nian-Jorda­nian archi­tect Jafar Tukan and his firm Jafar Tukan & Part­ners desi­gned an ensemble of two-story houses, shaded cour­ty­ards, gardens, paths, and arched passages. The archi­tec­ture adopts regional buil­ding forms and mate­rials without turning them into a histo­ri­ci­zing back­drop.

Communal faci­li­ties such as a kinder­garten, sports hall, shop, and phar­macy are located at the edge of the complex and are also oriented towards the neigh­bor­hood. From the begin­ning, the child­ren’s village was intended to offer protec­tion without sealing itself off from the city. For this combi­na­tion of social concept, local buil­ding tradi­tion, and contem­po­rary archi­tec­ture, the project received the Aga Khan Award for Archi­tec­ture in 2001.

Today, accor­ding to those involved in the project, the faci­lity offers space for about 100 children in family groups and so-called Safe Houses. The two new contai­ners continue the idea of open­ness.

The first container is a classic KuKuk Box for younger children. Clim­bing struc­tures lead up to the roof, supple­mented by a slide, craw­ling passages, plat­forms, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for balan­cing, hiding, and free play. In the small foot­print of the former ship­ping container, a surpri­singly multi-layered play space is created.

The second container contains a complete skate park. Mobile ramps are taken out and assem­bled into chan­ging courses. Inside, skate­boards, stunt scoo­ters, and BMX bikes are stored along­side helmets, and wrist, elbow, and knee pads. After use, ever­y­thing disap­pears safely back into the box. Order is helpful here too.

The play container is prima­rily used by kinder­garten children, while the skate park is aimed at older children and teen­agers. Its elements can be recom­bined again and again and adapted to diffe­rent skill levels. Thus, it is not two iden­tical contai­ners stan­ding side by side, but two coor­di­nated offe­rings for diffe­rent age groups.

The contai­ners were largely prefa­bri­cated and trans­ported to Jordan by ship. In Aqaba, they only had to be lifted to their intended loca­tions and fully assem­bled. This sounds straight­for­ward at first, were it not for the local climate.

With daytime tempe­ra­tures of up to 45°C, the crane opera­tion was promptly moved to the night. The mobile crane arrived around 12:30 AM and placed the two contai­ners until about 3:00 AM. At around 30°C, it was almost plea­sant, at least by the stan­dards of this project.

The team completed the assembly the follo­wing day. By the evening, the children were able to take over the new faci­li­ties with a pain­ting work­shop and a small opening ceremony.

The skate park is not intended solely for the children of the SOS Child­ren’s Village. Children and young people from the neigh­bor­hood are also allowed to use the course and equip­ment. The KuKuk Box Aqaba thus becomes another inter­face between the protected living in the village and the surroun­ding city.

Skate­boar­ding, BMX, and scooter riding are parti­cu­larly suitable for such encoun­ters. The acti­vi­ties func­tion largely without a common language. Ramps are set up toge­ther, equip­ment is passed on, move­ments are observed, and tricks are learned from one another. Contact arises from sport without the need for a prior encounter program to be explained.

In this way, the contai­ners link directly to the archi­tec­ture of the child­ren’s village. They also demar­cate a safe place but remain open enough to enable commu­nity beyond their own resi­dents.

The KuKuk Box began with the wish to build a play­ground for crisis zones—at that time for the Gaza Strip. A solu­tion was sought that could be largely prefa­bri­cated, trans­ported by ship, and set up with mana­geable effort even under diffi­cult condi­tions. From this idea, a system emerged that combines trans­port contai­ners, a load-bearing basic struc­ture, a play object, and secure storage space.

A lot has happened since then. The KuKuk Box has long been at home in more than just crisis zones. It stands at schools and kinder­gar­tens, in public squares, in parks, and at social insti­tu­tions. Nevert­heless, the project in Aqaba brings things full circle. The box returns to a region for whose special requi­re­ments it was origi­nally deve­loped, and there it combines play, move­ment, and encounter.

However, only the box is stan­dar­dized. What children and young people make of it remains delightfully unpre­dic­table. The importance of such open spaces, on the other hand, is quite clearly estab­lished, in Aqaba just as ever­y­where else in the world.