Part of a larger scheme to revive the historic center of Beit Iksa, a small Palestinian village of 1,600 people near Jerusalem, the project offers a response to the village’s isolation and limited resources. In a first step, two abandoned buildings will be adapted for reuse as working spaces with an eco-kitchen for the local women’s association, followed by the rehabilitation of surrounding spaces.

The new facilities will include interactive educational playgrounds for children, winter and summer seating areas, and a protected bird habitat. It is an effort to bring life back to this abandoned site by combining design, planning, restoration, landscaping, and infrastructure, thus improving local living conditions and biodiversity, while adding to the aesthetic quality of Beit Iksa.

Read project feature in 4th Holcim Awards 2014/2015 (flip-book)

Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari from NG Architects and Palestine Regeneration Team (PART) in London focus their project on self-sufficiency, local knowledge and social impact. Responsiveness emerging from local knowledge and technical enhancements is at the core of their approach to sustainable construction. “Adaptive Re-Use: Women’s center and playground” in Beit Iksa, Palestine won a Holcim Awards Acknowledgement prize for adapting two abandoned buildings for reuse as working spaces with an eco-kitchen, followed by the rehabilitation of surrounding spaces.

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Shatha Safi from Riwaq – center for architectural conservation in Palestine considers people, material and knowledge to be the key sustainability factors of her project. “Adaptive Re-Use: Women’s center and playground” in Beit Iksa, Palestine won a Holcim Awards Acknowledgement prize for reviving the historic center of a village of 1,600 people, responding to isolation and limited resources. 

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The twelve winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2014 Africa Middle East focus mainly on enhancing social and environmental resilience, as well as the economy of construction. The winning submissions show how multi-disciplinary responses to the challenges facing design and building are being developed. A green building in Turkey, an urban forest rehabilitation in Lebanon, and a low-cost housing plan in Ethiopia received the top prizes.

The jury greatly appreciates the project’s social and spatial initiatives to strengthen communities and their environment in a politically troubled region of the world. Specifically valued is the intention to rehabilitate a historic site with minimal means and to revitalize a community through the provision of facilities for important daily activities – cooking, playing, gardening, etc. At the core of the project is the build-up of social and physical infrastructure – understood as a conduit to empower local stakeholders and, most importantly, families and women of all ages.

Part of a larger scheme to revive the historic center of Beit Iksa, a small Palestinian village of 1,600 people near Jerusalem, the project offers a response to the village’s isolation and limited resources. In a first step, two abandoned buildings will be adapted for reuse as working spaces with an eco-kitchen for the local women’s association, followed by the rehabilitation of surrounding spaces. The new facilities will include interactive educational playgrounds for children, winter and summer seating areas, and a protected bird habitat.