World NEWSMAY-JUNE 2018 SEAB 31
School built for children of Syrian refugees bags top
architecture prize
Photo: © Emergency Architecture & Human RightsCopenhagen, Denmark – The 100 schools for Refugee Children,
a project initiated by NGO Emergency Architecture and Human
Rights (EAHR) based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has won the
top prize at the XX Architecture Urbanism Biennial in Chile and
the award of Small Structure Building of the Year bestowed by
ArchDaily.
The Syrian civil war has displaced millions of people, most
of them are children who do not have access to basic education
due to lack of schools. EAHR is building 100 sandbag schools
and football fields as public spaces in order to educate refugee
children in the Middle East.
The classroom is built with the superadobe technique.
The construction is inspired by the Great Mosque of Djenné,
the traditional earth architecture from Mali and the vernacular
beehive house structures of Syria originated from Aleppo and
Homs, where many of the refugees come from.
Due to the limited choice of building methods and materials,
as well as the harsh environment characterised by hot summers
and cold winters, the beehive style is a viable solution for a
school construction. This kind of building technique does not
require high-tensile-strength reinforcements, and can be built
quickly with unskilled labour while performing better than tents,
cement blocks and corrugated metal sheets in terms of thermal
insulation and cost.
Za’atari village is currently housing 15,000 people from Syria
and 13,000 from Jordan. EAHR have, in collaboration with the
Ski Vest, Norway – Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter has been
appointed to design a new copper residential tower in Ski
Vest for Solon Eiendom. The new high quality housing project
in Ski Vest will offer innovative apartments sheltered in a
green new neighbourhood in Ski Vest, Norway. On the site
of a former military camp, the residential building will band
together with the adjacent historical landscape and built
environment of buildings from the 1890s in an attractive
and humble manner.
Through the conscious use of qualitative and location-
oriented architecture, the project will reinforce and develop
the inherent identity of the site. The copper housing
complex consists of 50 apartments with generous openings
and private spaces. The play of the tower geometry allows
all apartments generous ceiling heights and sheltered
terraces. Ski Vest RRA’s tower is wrapped by linear copper
terraces with a characteristic pattern giving the project a
unique language.Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter designs new copper residential
tower in Ski Vest
local community and the local NGO, Acting for Change Jordan,
implemented an extension to the existing school in order to
increase the number of people who have access to education.
The school will therefore be used by children in the morning
and by adults during the afternoon to learn reading and writing
skills.
The EAHR is now looking for funds to achieve its goal to
build other classrooms for the Syrian refugee children. For more
information, http://www.ea-hr.org.Photo: © Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter