Funding: Crowdfunding
Collaborators: Beirut Municipality, Ahla Fawda, Karantina Women Collective, Roula Abdo, Fouad Chehab
The design of the Safe Spaces for Girls in Karantina emerged from a co-design programme tailored to their unique context and needs, crafted to reflect the ideas and experiences of its young participants.
We engaged with a diverse group of 40 adolescent girls, aged 10 to 24, both Lebanese and Syrian. Together, the girls participated in neighbourhood safety walks, body mapping, large-scale model-making, and other participatory activities.
The initial phases focused on understanding the girls’ needs in public spaces, identifying the spaces they use in their neighbourhood, exploring their experiences in these spaces, and envisioning ways to transform them to better suit their needs. Following this, the adolescent girls selected the sites they wanted to transform in their neighbourhood, and their ideas directly influenced the design of these interventions.
The programme fostered new friendships and improved relationships between both Lebanese and Syrian girls. The co-design activities provided an opportunity for the girls to practise communication skills, express their ideas, and respect one another’s opinions. Collaborating to achieve the shared goal of creating safe public spaces helped the girls overcome differences and build meaningful friendships that they value and cherish.
From Design to Construction
The girls ultimately co-designed three interventions within their neighbourhood: a mural and two interactive street installations. Each intervention was presented to the wider community through public design consultations, reinforcing a sense of collective ownership.
Engaging the girls in every step of creating public spaces – including construction – is essential to fostering their sense of ownership over the spaces. Adolescent girls actively participated in painting and creating colourful mosaics, leaving their physical mark on the final built outcomes. From co-design to construction, empowerment takes shape. The co-designed public spaces provided an opportunity for the girls to create new memories and helped them cope with the distressing memories of the Beirut blast.
Space In Action
After the completion of the public space interventions and the inauguration, the girls took on the role of activating these spaces. They organised a neighbourhood tour, introduced the project to the community and key stakeholders, and facilitated various activities, such as picnics, photoshoots, dance sessions, and meet-ups. Adolescent girls are now more visible in their neighbourhood’s public spaces, particularly those they co-created. They are noticeably more confident in spending time in these areas compared to before the project. The girls feel empowered to assert themselves and claim spaces they enjoy.
We continue to monitor the project’s impact with the goal of expanding this inclusive, gender-sensitive approach to urban planning, creating safe and empowering environments for more adolescent girls.
“My family decided to leave Lebanon for good and go back to Syria. I am sad to be leaving. But I am happy that my last memory in Lebanon is creating these spaces. I am leaving a mark behind that my friends here will get to enjoy after I leave, and they will remember me.”
Youth Participant, Female, 14 Years Old
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