A Girls Sanctuary in Iraq

Tamayouz Excellence Award invites architects and designers to submit their ideas for a safe and comfortable space for homeless girls that supports their health, educational and psychosocial needs and helps them to achieve their own potential. 

Full Details | Competition Website

The Response
Participants are asked to design a sanctuary for homeless underage girls, as well as older female teens (4-18 yrs old).  

The sanctuary should provide security and a sense of community for the young girls, while presenting opportunities for them to stand out and contribute positively towards their community.

The environment of the sanctuary should not only be a shelter, but it should reflect the possibilities of the built environment for supporting health, psychological, educational and cultural needs while harnessing the power of art and creativity to encourage young girls to express themselves, and be brought back into the culture of the country in a way that is open, progressive and nourishing for them. The ancient river site might play a major role.

The Challenge
A quarter of Iraq’s children live in poverty, and a third of all children in Iraq are unable to access their basic human rights. Child poverty is a persistent issue in Iraq, which limits the potential of a large percentage of Iraq’s youth, curbs educational attainment, generates poor health in the individuals, and prevents children from realising their basic rights. There are many organisations dedicated to such matters; however, only a few of them are devoted to girls only. Girls are particularly at risk and suffer specifically from personal and societal stigmatisation in ways that boys do not. In the past it has been more difficult to find official support for girls shelters. For this reason, the idea of a girls sanctuary emerged.  The sanctuary will be committed to the welfare of children throughout the whole of their childhood as a preventive measure in the fight against abandonment and social ostracism. The sanctuary should aim to restore the balance in life for the abandoned, destitute, and spiritually and physically traumatised children, and help in establishing a new environment where awareness of such issues is spread. It should also inspire NGOs  to start taking control and contributing more to the community.