Recent architecture grad takes her skills to Jordan to build foundation for the next generation

A UB student since 2012, Al-Ghanem’s family is originally from Syria. In Jordan, Al-Ghanem took part in WORKSHOP 1 + 1=11, a program of the NGO Emergency Architecture and Human Rights (EAHR)'s "100 Schools for Refugee Children" project. Using low-cost, local materials and community expertise, the program seeks to increase classroom attendance of Syrian refugee children in Azraq village, located outside the Azraq refugee camp, today the second largest refugee camp in Jordan. 

Al-Ghanem was one of 20 candidates selected for the program. She participated in all phases of construction as well as EAHR lectures on humanitarian architecture and debate. 

The process relied heavily upon local labor and construction methods. For instance, the school's design draws from traditional Syrian rural architecture and was built out of compressed earth bricks. Syrian refugees from the nearby Zaatari camp comprised the majority of the construction team, while local Jordanians and foreign volunteers provided the rest.  

In addition to helping with the construction, Al-Ghanem served as an Arabic-English translator between EAHR leaders and local residents. “Being able to speak Arabic helped me connect with many of the skilled workers on site and off. I have made friendships and learned a lot about the hardships they went through in Syria and Jordan, which has only fueled my desire to be part of the solution through design.”

Al-Ghanem says her graduate research experience as part of the Department of Architecture's Material Culture Research Group created a strong foundation for the low-tech, on-the-ground, problem-solving approach to design in Jordan. In fact, the Azraq school's brick system was very similar to a concrete compression project she explored under architecture professor Christopher Romano.

“I believe a material-heavy approach to architecture works well in disaster relief architecture because you’re usually working in a foreign land with very little resources and/or technology available to you. I am very grateful I have had the ability to focus on material building in school. The work I did in Jordan only further emphasized that this approach to architecture is not only a valid one, but one that works best when you’re directly on the ground building in those types of conditions.”

Al-Ghanen has since returned to Buffalo to complete her Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation. Looking ahead, she says the experience in Jordan affirmed her interest in a career in humanitarian architecture.

Emergency Architecture and Human Rights is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Copenhagen, Rome and Santiago de Chile, building for those who face humanitarian emergencies, cultural conflicts, inequality and human right issue.