Bouday, Lebanon, 2018
The Bouday Child Friendly Space (CFS) is run by the Lebanese Organisation for Studies and Training (LOST) in partnership with War Child Holland. Here they conduct intensive recreation and play activities, awareness raising sessions and structured psychosocial activities for Syrian and Lebanese children, youths and adults.
The main objective of this project was to rehabilitate an existing community building and transform it into an innovative CFS. Before the intervention by CatalyticAction, the indoor space lacked colours and the configuration of the furniture offered a ‘traditional’ classroom setup – which is usually not ideal for psychosocial support sessions.
The new indoor CFS was designed to be flexible, joyful, functional and stimulating. The design was developed following extensive research on the type of psychosocial activities that can be run in such a space, directly responding to practical needs and suggesting possible ways to optimise existing psychosocial programmes through design. The space was re-organised as one big room where multiple activities could take place. Specific furniture was designed, including flexible tables and seating, to accommodate different age groups and different spatial combinations, with shelves to store the tools needed for exercises. The walls were painted vibrant colours and include some interactive elements, like shapes, a chalkboard wall, and a ‘I am as tall as’ measuring tape.