Background

     Bersive 2 Camp is situated in Dohuk Governorate, in Northern Iraq comprised of over 8000 IDPs (Internally displaced people), with 90% of the population being Yazidis, a minority group subject to ISIS genocide and ethnic cleansing that commenced in 2014. Many residents have been living there since 2014 and there are a significant number of children born in camp. The UNHCR and government have provided basic tents and material support for 8 years now since 2014 with minimal civic or community infrastructure and a very low level of amenity. Furthermore, there is very little sense of community and stability for the residents, and there is no evidence that the situation will change in the near future. Habibi International, an NGO, who had been working in the camp for a few years, obtained a piece of land and decided to provide a community center for the camp.

    The project was initiated and funded by Habibi International and HIS Foundation, designed by ABCD Collaborative, InSitu Project and Vide Terra, collaborated with Habibi International,  HIS Foundation, MedEast, Catalytic Action, also with support from Design for People and School of Design HK PolyU under an asset based  and partici[atory construction process.

Design Plan

     Habibi community center is planned to be an oasis for camp residents. The center provides essential healthcare and community facilities including medical and dental clinics, a dedicated woman’s and children’s place, amenities for community activities including a community hall with kitchen, co-designed playground as well as sanitary facilities. The plan is designed to be a surrounding roof with a courtyard feeling. Healthcare facilities are built by containers while the community hall was designed to be built by superadobe construction that looks distinctly different from the basic concrete block, container or tent structures of the camp, which could ultilize local resources and able to engage local residents in the construction of the building. It is hoped that through capacity building of local people, they could equip with the skill to build their own house when they back to their hometown with available natural resesources.

Concept design with building made by superadobe and containers

Superadobe wall building

    With the limited resources and financial capital, the design team and collaborators agreed on using soil as the main construction material. Free and abundant within the community, it serves to increase capacity building and skills of local people. Superadobe, a process invented by an Iranian‐born architect, Nader Khalili, is very simple and efficient, structurally stable and every one can build together. It allowed for rapid construction using local material resources and unskilled labour. Superadobe expert from Italy was partnered to provide on-site training to local people and they were able to master the skill just in one day with the simple but innovative method. At first, other people laughed at them, but when the wall was finished, people were surprised and the workers were very proud. The team also collaborated better and faster as the wall went up. The relationship between them was also getting stronger.

Glass window building

      Hundreds of wasted bottles were collected from the community, restaurant, wedding and bars through a collective effort. The experiment process took around 2 months. It involved cutting and gluing glass bottle and different size and color had been tested. Local builders were treating it as an artwork and designed the pattern according to the amount of color collected. The art piece was named 'Tree of life' with green bottle as the tree and red bottles as fruits. There were a strong sense of accomplishment when the glass windows were installed and people come to take photo at different time to see the changed in color with the sunlight.

Glass bottle window design process

Co-Design Playground

    There were many idea for the playground at the beginning including volleyball court, farming, gardening, BBQ etc. At last it was decided to ask the children from the camp for answers. Catalytic Action, an NGO from UK was partnered to facilitate a co design process with children. Several round of training and idea was collected from the children of Bersive 2 camp. The playground was built follow the collective ideas of children and increased their sense of belonging.