A child-friendly city: a youth creative vision of reclaiming interstitial spaces in El Mina (Tripoli, Lebanon)
Abstract
Although old Arab cities were designed bottom-up to follow the needs of their users, public spaces for use by children were not fully considered. This paper is an outcome of a funded project that hosted 30 youth (aged 13–17 years old) from different parts of El Mina city, located in the North of Lebanon, Tripoli. The project’s aim was not limited to capacity building or designing a framework for youth participation as a vision for a child-friendly city alone, as it also demonstrated community participation with the youth to realize a design vision in an unused interstitial space by the youth in the ancient city of El Mina. The funded project consisted of many different stages; this paper focuses on the site selection, design process and the final stage of implementation. The results highlight the lessons learned from the youth’s participation, the adaptive reuse of interstitial spaces, in addition to the various interests of the project’s stakeholders.
Article in English.
Vaikams palankus miestas: jaunimo kūrybinė vizija El Minos (Tripolis, Libanas) tarpinių erdvių pertvarkymo klausimu
Santrauka
Nors senieji Arabijos miestai buvo suprojektuoti principu „iš apačios į viršų“ siekiant patenkinti jų vartotojų poreikius, tačiau į viešąsias erdves, skirtas naudotis vaikams, nebuvo iki galo atsižvelgta. Šis straipsnis – tai rezultatas finansuoto projekto, kuriame dalyvavo 30 jaunuolių (13–17 metų amžiaus) iš skirtingų El Minos miesto, įsikūrusio Šiaurės Libane (Tripolyje), dalių. Projekto tikslas nebuvo varžomas kuriamų gebėjimų ar projektuojamos struktūros kaip vien tik vaikams palankaus miesto vizijos, skirtos jaunimui; projektu taip pat buvo pademonstruotas bendruomenės dalyvavimas, įsitraukiant jaunimui, siekiant įgyvendinti dizaino idėjas nenaudojamoje tarpinėje erdvėje senoviniame El Minos mieste. Finansuotą projektą sudarė daug skirtingų etapų; šiame straipsnyje susitelkiama į vietos parinkimą, projektavimo procesą ir galutinį įgyvendinimo etapą. Gauti rezultatai iliustruoja jaunimo dalyvavimo suteiktas pamokas, adaptyvų pakartotinį tarpinių erdvių naudojimą, be to, įvairius projekto suinteresuotų šalių interesus.
Reikšminiai žodžiai: vaikams palankus miestas, kūrybinis mokymasis, El Mina (Tripolis), tarpinės erdvės, jaunimo dalyvavimas, jaunimo vizija.
Keyword : child-friendly city, creative learning, El Mina (Tripoli), interstitial spaces, youth participation, youth vision
How to Cite
Mohareb, N., Elsamahy, E., & Felix, M. (2019). A child-friendly city: a youth creative vision of reclaiming interstitial spaces in El Mina (Tripoli, Lebanon). Creativity Studies, 12(1), 102-118. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2019.6171
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Francis, M., & Lorenzo, R. (2002). Seven realms of children’s participation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 22(1-2), 157-169. https://doi.org/10.1006/jevp.2001.0248
Gulick, J. (1963). Images of an Arab City. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 29(3), 179-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944366308978063
Hart, R. A. (1992). Children’s participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship. Innocenti Essays, 4. Florence: UNICEF International Child Development Centre.
International Child Friendly Cities Secretariat. (2018). Building blocks for developing a child friendly city. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.or.jp/cfc/about/pdf/CFC_Building_Blocks.pdf
Lau, D. (2012). Interstitial urbanism: inhabiting the “in-between” (Master Thesis). Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario (unpublished source).
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Hassan M. Nour, El O. (2013). Building child friendly cities in the MENA region. International Review of Education, 59(4), 489-504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-013-9373-1
Malone, K. (2013). Kazakhstan child friendly cities: Final Report November, 2013. Sydney: University of Western Sydney, Centre for Educational Research.
Masri, S. S. (2018). Integrating youth in city planning: developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Wastani – Saida. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 57(2), 897-909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
Mohareb, N., & Maassarani, S. (2018). Design-build: an effective approach for architecture studio edu-cation. ArchNet International Journal of Architectural Research, 12(2), 146-161. https://doi.org/10.26687/archnet-ijar.v12i2.1570
Shaw, P., & Hudson, J. (2009, 2-4 July). The qualities of informal space: (re)appropriation within the informal, interstitial spaces of the city. Proceedings of the Conference “Occupation Negatiations of the Constructed Space” (pp. 1-13). University of Brighton, Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings, England.
Stein, J. (2014). KidsRights Report. Child participation: from rights to reality. Retrieved from https://kid-srights.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/KidsRights%20Report%20-%20Child%20Participation%20v2016.pdf
Un-Habitat. (2016). Tripoli city profile. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/2016.10.28_UN-HABITAT_TripoliCityProfile_SpreadsMR.pdf
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