Andrea & Magda - PNN - It is the first day at school for the Palestinian Bedouin children of the Jahalin community, in the Judean Desert. But this year is different: they'll be studying in a schoolhouse made of bamboo.
ImageThe new desert school of the Wadi Abu Hindi community is the last project of the Italian NGO Vento Di Terra and a group of architects called "Arcò". But the story of this school is rooted further in the past.
The community, displaced from the Negev by the newborn Israeli state in 1948, resolved to build a school in 1997 as a response to their dramatic demographic growth. In 1994 the signing of the Interim Oslo Accords placed their community in Area C, an area of Israeli civilian and military control.
Thereafter the homes and the school were demolished twice before the Israeli Court of Justice ruled the demolitions illegal and granted the community a temporary permit of reconstruction. Like most Bedouin buildings in Area C, the school was a metal sheet structure which could become unbearably hot. Despite these harsh conditions, 120 children pass through the school doors every year.
"Vento di Terra," the Italian NGO, specializes in the use of alternative construction materials to improve the conditions of the users of the school. The name means "an offshore wind."
ImageThe project faced restrictions imposed by the Israeli military authority, which controls the maintenance of the building. In addition to the thermal insulation issue, insufficient acoustic insulation between classrooms resulted in interruptions from other classrooms. The NGO responded by deciding to use bamboo and straw.
ImageAll these aspects are important for giving each building its unique identity. Technical and architectural decisions taken by Arcò team are designed to retrofit each existing building and transform it into a new one, both comfortable and sustainable.
As it was in centuries of Bedouin history, dozens of kids crossed mountains by foot or with their inseparable mules to go from their homes to school. And as soon as the bell announced the end of the school, a long line of children and mules disappeared into the Palestinian desert.
Palestine News Network
25/10/10
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