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Ruin Reborn

Mosul, Iraq

Individual Work
Spring 2022
Professor: Lingqing Zhang

The government plans to close the last refugee camp in the country, but many people are still living in the refugee camp although five years have passed since the Iraq War. According to the survey, women and chidren who are facing discrimination, fear and trauma make up the vast majority of this refugees, which means that the closure of the refugee camp will make them unable to find a job or even a place to live.

This project plans to build a community on the ruins for refugees which is under the premise of protecting women's guardianship, safety and privacy. Provide these refugees with a place to live, work, study and relax.

Community Design for Women in Post-war Iraq

CCCM IRAQ IDP CAMP MAP_November2021

Iraq - IDP Camp Profiling - Round XV, Situation Overview (June - August 2021)

iraq_humanitarian_snapshot_may_2021_-_cleared_20210610

Camp Master List and Population Flow January 2022

REACH_IRQ_Map_IDP_Qayyarah-Jadah-5_12Jul2021

'pleasure marriages'

Click here to see this refugee shelter

Investing in Women's Economic
Empowerment in lraq

Iraq women face significant challenges to their rights and well-being, including violence, limited access to education and the labor market, and societal pressures that restrict their freedom. While Iraq has a constitution that guarantees equal rights, this is not fully reflected in practice, and some laws and social norms contradict these guarantees.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 28 percent of girls in Iraq are married before the age of 18. Child marriage puts girls at increased risk of sexual and physical violence, adverse physical and mental health consequences, and being denied access to education and employment.

Since the entire refugee camp is planned for removal, I locate my site in the nearby war-torn urban area, which was once the refugees’ original homeland.

At the heart of the site, I preserved a surviving large mosque, which serves as a spiritual anchor for the community. And then extended the site boundaries based on the former urban fabric.

This site is designed as a transitional zone in which refugees can learn construction skills, which will allow them to gradually rebuild their homes. I reintroduced the original vehicular road, which functions as the main and only access to the community and connects it to the outside world.

To protect women and children, the temporary settlement is enclosed using architectural space, which create a secure environment that supports emotional healing and post-war recovery.

When residents feel ready, they can expand their homes outward beyond the protected zone.

Except for the existing mosque, the remaining damaged structures will be cleared, which will allow for the construction of new housing and essential community functions.

Click here to my site / the Mosque...

I then categorized the refugees based on household size, which influences the layout of different residential areas across the site. Following this, I analyzed the functional spaces they need, dividing them into workspaces and living spaces. Each category follows a distinct set of principles, guardianship, safety, and privacy, to address the specific needs of the community.

The program layout and spatial design are developed based on these three distinct principles—guardianship, safety, and privacy. These principles inform the organization, hierarchy, and relationships between different spaces, and are consistently applied throughout the overall design. To ensure clarity and continuity, I use a consistent set of icons to represent each principle across the drawings and diagrams that follow.

I spent nearly two months developing the overall masterplan for the community before moving on to the design of residential and public buildings.

Instead of separating functions like classrooms and restaurants into standalone structures, I approached the public buildings as a cohesive whole. The public spaces were designed as an integrated system centered around the existing mosque, with the circulations of the community guide the spatial layout and design.

Once the architectural forms and details were fully developed, I integrated them back into my initial masterplan sketches, which gradually turned into the final version presented below.

But now, I will tell this story in reverse....