The energy and raw materials used to create a building are substantial, so finding ways to extend building life or reuse materials are becoming a critical element of the sustainability of design. The architects reused a pavilion from Expo15 in Milan as a school where no permanent structures are permitted. The intervention greatly improves the living conditions in a refugee settlement in Lebanon.

A protracted civil war has been raging in Syria since 2011. But calling it a “civil war” overlooks the significant cross-border impacts of the conflict within the region and beyond. To date, the conflict has claimed about half a million lives, and about 12 million Syrians have been forced to leave their homes. According to the UN, the refugee crisis caused by this war is the largest since the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

A large number of Syrians have fled to Lebanon. There are good reasons for this: Nearly all of Lebanon’s borders are shared with Syria, so the two countries are geographically interconnected. Many Syrians have relatives in Lebanon, and they can communicate there in the same Arabic dialect; unlike in Turkey, another frequent destination of the refugees. Lebanon now has the world’s highest per capita number of refugees: 1.5 million refugees to 4 million inhabitants.

The call for refugees to return to their homeland is getting louder – but of course no one would voluntarily return with their family to a war zone. Because the authorities and the government don’t want the situation to escalate, the refugees in Lebanon are merely tolerated; new refugees no longer receive legal status. Nothing should give the impression that more Syrians are settling permanently in Lebanon. That’s why permanent buildings are no longer allowed in the innumerable refugee camps. Newly arriving refugees live in tents. They set them up on land they rent from private owners – for whom they also work in many cases, usually for low wages, for instance in the agricultural or construction industry.

People in the temporary camps of course strive to live a normal life too. And it’s not that Lebanon doesn’t support them. For example, the authorities want to see that the children and adolescents attend school. The older children are taught in public schools – in the afternoon, after the local students have gone home. Education is the key to their future. If today’s generation were to grow up without education, a future catastrophe in Lebanon and Syria would be inevitable. The many NGOs that organize schooling for the children in the camps must therefore follow state requirements.

One of the NGOs providing education in the refugee camps is Jusoor, founded by Syrian expatriates. It runs a school in the Jarahieh refugee tented settlement, which is located in the town of El Marj in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon’s main agricultural region, and one with a fairly harsh climate. The settlement is home to around 300 families with well over 1,000 children. Here arose Jusoor’s contact with the NGO CatalyticAction, which is based in London and led by a team including the young architects Joana Dabaj and Riccardo Conti.

Joana Dabaj (left) and Riccardo Conti (above) first visited the Jarahieh refugee settlement in December 2015. They saw the poor conditions of the tented school. The school consisted of two tents with barely enough space for the children. The tents were sweltering hot in summer and bitter cold in winter. Jusoor and CatalyticAction discussed the options for building a better school – with the restriction that no permanent building is allowed.

Fortunately for the initiators, the universal 2015 Milan Expo had just come to an end. For such major events – for example also the Olympic Games – many buildings are erected that have no purpose after the event.

Read the full article: “Temporary 2.0” in Fifth LafargeHolcim Awards – Sustainable Construction 2017/2018