Delivery process
The Children’s Land Primary School in Um Al Nasser, Palestine was a project developed in 2011 by Arcò Architectures in conjunction with Mario Cucinella Architects, as the result of a call for a ‘Bedouin Tent’ by the NGO Vento di Terra. The call was to provide a primary school that could remind of the traditional Bedouin culture of the ‘tent’ as the gathering place for the kid of the Bedouin, expelled from Ber Sheva in 1984. The architects decided to use bioclimatic criteria and the use of local material as main design criteria. The building was therefore built using earthbags, wetland, and photovoltaic panels, and with the help of local unskilled labour. This decision allowed the local community to learn and develop new skills. The school management is also carried out by a local team of people who were trained by teams from the NGO Vento di Terra. The construction was organized with critical path and it lasted only few weeks. Moreover, the NGO also organized and trained the local community to develop inclusive education programs. The project was part of the program ‘Peace Architecture for Education in Gaza’ and funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), Milano Municipality, L.U.S.H., and it is supported by the Vento di Terra NGO’s network.
The total cost for the project was 180.000 euro. As it was reported by many media, Unfortunately the school complex was destroyed during an invasion occurred in 2014.
Innovation types and impacts
The innovation types in the building spanned from incremental to radical.
This latter is found in the concept, in the scope of the building itself, and in the technological systems introduced in the building such as the water purification system. The site itself is a radical setting for the construction of a public building, as the Gaza Strip is reported to be lacking of any programming or urban organization. Modular innovation characterises the timber floor system and the vertical internal partitions. Architectural innovation described the building typology, the geometry, the shape and the layout, whereas system innovation can be found in the relation between orientation, optimization of the microclimatic conditions, and the indoor environmental control strategies, such the use of natural lighting and natural ventilation. Despite, the use of earthbags can be considered an innovative building techniques for many context, in the area other examples of building with such materials already existed, and some of the project participant were already skilled to deliver such technique. For this reason, the construction system in the building can be consider either architectural innovation (if considered per se), or system innovation, as such technique contributed to the performance of the indoor environmental quality. Incremental innovation was found in the foundation systems, which followed the standard practice.
Table 32: The table the distribution of type of innovation on the building. On this project the types of innovation spanned from incremental to radical innovation.
Incremental Modular Architectural System Radical
Context Characteristics
Table 33: The project called for competence destroying activities for all the parties involved in the project.
The innovation in the building required a certain degree of competence destroying activities for a number of actors involved. For instance, the NGO Vento di Terra and the local community had to learn new competencies to deliver the building project. To some extent, also some of the financing actors involved undertook roles that differs from their core scope activities, such as in the case of Ministero degli affari esteri;
Cooperazione italiana; Comune di Milano; Comune di Sesto San Giovanni;
L.U.S.H. Italia; NGO Vento di Terra. All the actors involved in the building construction undertook some risk during the delivery due to the high risk related to the war conflict in the area, and therefore had to acquire skills in relation to potential safety issues.
Sustainability results
The results achieved were predominately social and environmental. Economic results were also achieved in terms of cost saving and in the market opening and knowledge acquisitions for the local community, who, through the construction, could learn new competitive skills. The building set an example for environmental architecture for the Palestinian building industry. This result was achieved thanks to the use of low cost, low tech materials, and ease of constructability, and therefore replicable in other project in a similar context. The environmental approach in the building helped reduce the GHG emission and optimise the energy resources in the area. This result was achieved thanks to the fact that the building was for a part hypogeum, and therefore the class benefitted from the thermal inertia of the soil, which contributed to the temperature control. Also, the natural ventilation contributed to the indoor thermal performance of the space, as well as the double roof system allowed the convective motion and exchange
panels in the optimisation of energy resources. Beside the social nature of the project aim, the building help facilitate the introduction of innovative teaching methods, achieving the increase of literacy for the local kids. The building also aimed at providing a safe place for the kids, and women of the community. The teaching method also was focused on promoting ‘peace education’. The building also offered the space for setting up a counselling desk in support of education and mothers, as well as the organization of workshop by the Palestinian Medical Relief, in order to counter the proliferation of intestinal infection that affects the majority of Um al Nasser children in preschool. Unfortunately, these results did not last for long. As previously mentioned, the building was destroyed in 2014, destroying as well the meaning, the efforts and the positive results that the building had achieved after its construction.
Figure 36: The pie charts above show the nature of the results achieved on the project. The Children’s land project was predominantly a social and environmental endeavour, which could, at least for a while, produce positive results in this instance.
The actors and the eco-innovation and sustainability model
The actors involved on this project were public institutions (such as the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and other Local Italian Town Government), private entities (donors), the NGO Vento di Terra, The designers, and the local community. The co-ideation phase was characterised by the role of the public institution, which enabled the delivery of such project by setting up the ‘Peace Architecture for Education in Gaza’ program, and therefore acted as leader. The NGO Vento di Terra also acted as leader, champion ad entrepreneur, since they ideated, promoted and created the links to enable the project. The co-innovation phase was characterised by the teams of the architects and the local community who worked together on the design and delivery of the project. By doing so, they had an impact on the co-institutionalization phase, which was characterised by the generation of results on the market and society, by the development of the knowledge and technology, as well as, thanks to the role of the client and the public institution, the attempt to establish a benchmark for the delivery procedure of future projects in the area.
Building Process
ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL
ECONOMIC
Figure 37: The image above shows the role of the actors involved on the project. The eco-ideation phase was characterised by the role of public institution and client. The eco-innovation phase was characterised by the roles the designers in conjunction with the local community; and the eco-institutionalization phase was characterised by impacts on market and society, knowledge and technology, and policy and regulation.