The Jarahieh School, as the project is known on site, occupies a plot of 413 square meters within the Jarahieh Informal Tented Settlement, approximately 16 kilometers from the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley. The original pavilion, designed by AOUMM for Save the Children Italy's presence at Expo 2015 in Milan, was an open-sided timber structure. Rather than being demolished at the close of the Expo, the pavilion was dismantled between December 2015 and May 2016, containerized, and shipped to Lebanon, arriving at the Jarahieh settlement in June 2016. Reassembly and adaptation took place between July and October 2016.
The redesign reorganized the pavilion's modular timber components into a closed building arranged around an internal courtyard of 116 square meters, shifting the structure from an open exhibition pavilion to a series of enclosed, naturally lit classrooms suited to year-round occupation in the Bekaa Valley's harsh climate. The building stands 5.4 meters in height with a gross floor area of 215 square meters and a construction cost of approximately USD 62,000. The structural system retains the original timber frame, adapted and supplemented to meet the demands of the new enclosed plan. Facade panels are a sandwich construction of oriented strand board with natural sheep wool insulation and a protective rain screen; the roof follows the same wool-and-OSB assembly beneath a corrugated metal sheet.
Sheep wool was selected for insulation both for its thermal performance and its local availability: Lebanese sheep farms, 72 percent of which are concentrated in the Bekaa Valley, typically discard wool as a byproduct. Its use in the project created a supply chain linking the settlement to local farmers and engaged women from the community in the processing and installation of the material. The technique subsequently spread beyond the school, with settlement residents applying it to their own shelters. Classrooms are designed for natural cross-ventilation and daylighting, and the courtyard provides space for recreational activities including a climbing wall. The school serves 350 children during the morning shift and students from neighboring settlements in the afternoon, and functions additionally as a community hub, aid distribution point, and the settlement's only structurally secure shelter in the event of severe weather.
Project Status: Completed, 2016 (construction 12 July to 20 October 2016).
The jury was greatly moved by the project's contribution to the ongoing humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees and the ingenious reinvention of the pavilion as a school. Within a context lacking basic infrastructure, the project provides not only space for education but also a dignified environment that is a source of pride for the community who helped to build it. Through the use of what would otherwise be material waste, namely both the pavilion and the wool insulation, the school is the impressive result of limited available means and resources. The project is an implicit critique of the high-design, short lifecycle model of grand exhibition events and offers a potent template for future application.
