Iris du Bouetiez de Kerorguen
The project explores the symbolism of rebirth via recycling by using materials such as gabions and plastic bottles to create a blooming learning space. Nature is central to this project, as much as a source of healing than as a sustainable design choice, by incorporating a water collection roof, an edible garden, a double-roof system and solar panels. The school will also serve as a community center for both the Syrian and Turkish communities, hence the mini-football field, the library, the small clinic and the cafetorium. Students would be encouraged to write and draw on walls, as a symbolic exercise of freedom of speech. The process of construction would serve as an activity of empowerment and rehabilitation, both for the student’s parents and for the students, as well as restore a sense of ownership and pride. Once the crisis subsides, the school will still be able to operate as a turkish school, a community or even health center, and will bear witness of this passage of Turkey’s history.
At McGill University School of Architecture