We worked in partnership with the Society for Social Support and Education (SSSE) on the rehabilitation of two of their schools’ courtyards in Kamed El Laouz and Ghazze in Bekaa, Lebanon. School courtyards are very important spaces for socialising, relaxing, engaging in physical activities, learning and most importantly having fun.
In Kamed El Laouz we rehabilitated the indoor toddlers’ playground and the outdoor elementary school courtyard. We rehabilitated the outdoor courtyard by animating it to encourage a variety of activities that benefit all students.
The design was developed through participatory activities with the students, teachers and our partner, and it focused on creating different play areas: a group sports play area encouraging sports activities such as running, football, basketball; a resting, learning and performance area with an outdoor amphitheatre and a stage; an active play area equipped with sloped volumes, pull up bars, and tree stumps; and an exploratory, quiet and natural area developed around a large tree and animated by adding play elements such as speaking pipes.
We also enlarged the seating area running all around the courtyard, incorporated shading elements, water taps and animated the space with colourful floor paint. The rehabilitation included fixing the water drainage.
