This project is part of Greening Bourj Al Shamali, an initiative by the local committee of Bourj Al Shamali, a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon. The project aims to improve living conditions in the camp and to create its first public green space and community garden.  AHO’s Scarcity and Creativity Studio has been invited to support this effort and to collaborate on creating the green space and, within this, a workshop cabin for the community garden. AHO studio students will be joined by a group of youths from the camp who have been trained in construction work by Beit Atfal Assomoud, the vocational centre in the camp. Together they will work in coordination with the local committee. AHO students will learn about the situation in the camp. A series of talks at AHO will contextualise the work in Bourj Al Shamali and representatives from the camp will also visit AHO and contribute (in person and online) to the design process.

Bourj Al Shamali was founded as a temporary camp for Palestinian refugees coming mainly from the agricultural regions of Tiberias and Hawla in 1948. Over half a century later, it now houses 25,000 people and is an overcrowded, unplanned, permanent city, with five times the intended number of inhabitants occupying the original site leased by the UN.   

Though the inhabitants of Bourj Al Shamali regard themselves as an agricultural people – as evidenced by the many painted murals of  farming scenes in the camp – there are no public green spaces there,  nor do they plant crops that might supply some of their food needs and thereby sustain their link to the land. 

The Public Square  In the center of the camp a family who migrated to Germany left the site they lived on for community use. The site is bounded by four streets/alleys, which make it uniquely appropriate to provide the first and only public space in the camp.

At present the site contains two large, old olive trees at its center, and a fig and ornamental tree in the perimeter. On the site there are two buildings, a stone hut, 3m x 4m, which is one of the few remaining first generation buildings in the camp, and which should be rehabilitated for community use. The other building, of around 40 m2, built from thin concrete blocks is falling apart and could be demolished or rehabilitated as a community facility.

The whole site, which extends to around 220 m2, is to be developed as a public square. It is possible that neighbors will demand that the square be fenced to control its use at night.

The Community Garden and Workshop  At the edge of the camp there is a plot of land containing 15 olive trees that has been donated to the Local Committee for a community garden and workshop cabin which will serve as a space for meetings and lessons on agriculture, gardening, and food processing. It will contain a basic kitchen for the women’s cooperative, as well as a space for meetings and group activities, such as the citizen science club.   Standing on the border between the refugee camp and the surrounding Lebanese community, the community garden also aims to be a bridge between the two communities as the local Lebanese population also lack green spaces.

The two main ‘clients’ of this project are:

Mahmoud Al Joumma

Mahmoud Al Joumma is the Head of Beit Atfal Assomoud vocational center and a founder of the Al

Houla Association that runs the library in the refugee camp. Since 2012, he is a member of the Bourj Al

Shamali local city council, where, standing on an independent civic platform, he became the first

elected representative from the refugee camp. In 2016 he was re-elected and appointed as the

local council member responsible for culture and environment. He has worked extensively to increase

opportunities for youth setting up the first scout group and music band in the camp; to empower the

local community to be more active in shaping their living environment; and to build ties with the local

Lebanese community.

Claudia Martinez Mansell

Claudia Martinez Mansell is a humanitarian worker and independent researcher. She has worked for

over ten years with the United Nations, and has lived for extended periods in Kosovo, Lebanon, the

occupied Palestinian territories, Sudan and Yemen. Her research interests are concerned with

protracted crises, urbanization and critical examinations of the landscapes created by

humanitarian crises and interventions. She first visited Bourj Al Shamali in 1998, when she volunteered

at the vocational center in the camp. She has returned regularly and with Mr Al Joumma is

spearheading the current effort to green the camp.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE SEE:   http://scs.aho.no/Bourj%20Al%20Shamali.htm