Abu hindi school playground | ARCò - Architettura e Cooperazione

Abu Hindi Bedouin community is composed of two main camps and several isolated groups of houses in the South of Jerusalem, West Bank, for a total of 2.700 people. Abu Hindi is located in the South of the Israeli colony Maale Adumim, in a semi-desertic region, next to a seasonal creek bed. On the southern side of Abu Hindi there is Qedar colony, which is hostile to all Bedouin communities in the area.

The camp is downstream of the biggest dumping ground in the area, which is used both by Jerusalem city and Israeli colony. A slurry pool, right close to the creek bed, during summer, causes miasmas going towards the village and making air unbreathable. Toxic substances enter the food chain of local inhabitants and particularly of children, through sheep’ milk, as sheep eat grass in the hills around.
Water supply is realized with a service rubber pipe of 2 cm diameter, often damaged with infiltrations. As a consequence water is polluted because of the dumping ground and slurry leaks coming from the pool, which often happen during winter rainfalls.
Abu Hindi has no connection with the electric net and the phone net. The community uses a hired gas oil generator, which is un-sufficient for the local needs and cannot work in a continuous way.

Architectural Project

Three years after the refurbishment of the classrooms Abu Hindi community asked to build two new classes for the 10 and 11 grade and a playground inside the school fence.
In-fact, when students successfully completed grade 9 they were obliged to walk 5 km on foot to reach the nearest school of Al Azarijie in order to attend grade 10 and 11 and complete secondary education. This situation had significantly contributed to an increased level of drop out, in particular amongst girls.

The chosen technique is the same used in 2010. So first came the construction of a metal structure, and after that the installation of the pisé and bamboo layers in the two sides of the metal corrugated sheet. This technique demonstrated, in-fact, an excellent behaviour in the extreme climate of the desert.
The outdoor spaces of the school is divided in two main areas, each one of them with a very different topography. The main area on the south side, around which all the classrooms are situated, is mainly flat. A sloped area raises from the centre of the compound to the north. Here are situated the pavilions of the offices of manager and teachers. Due to the effect of the rain through many years, the lower part of the sloped area was very deteriorated, with several parts next to the buildings in which a big amount of soil had been removed by the rain, affecting their stability.
Therefore the technical project plan the stabilization of the deteriorated sloped areas, the installation of a hard pavement around the classrooms’ building and the connection with the teacher’s office. The re-design of the slope became the core of the project: from the technical point of view it was decided to build retaining walls using a traditional Palestinian technique, the dry-stone walls. In this way the community had the chance to use an already known technique to shape this multi-purpose element. In-fact, The difference in height is also used as an occasion to create slides as games for the children.
A compacted sub-base pavement on the main flat area, an aggregate one on the playgrounds and the installation of new playgrounds facilities are also provided.