Buro Happold and partners chosen to create educational facility in Damascus
Buro Happold, working alongside Henning Larsen Architects and Martha Schwartz Partners, has won an international design competition to design an educational discovery centre for children in Damascus, Syria.
The new Massar Children’s Discovery Centre and Public Realm will be a unique opportunity to create an exceptional ‘children only’ fun learning experience. Young people will be able to explore, decode and engage not only with the hands-on exhibits, but also with the building itself.
The construction materials for the building have been carefully selected to emphasise and enhance the local traditions and skills of Syria. Clay plaster on all internal surfaces, particularly the walls, has been specified as part of a breathable wall construction. This will help to create a comfortable environment that allows humidity to be absorbed and heat to be retained. Less traditional but still in keeping with the low energy concept, the building envelope will be fitted out with solar panels to gather heat during the summer and mid-season to charge the ground ‘heat’ store.
Buro Happold’s environmental strategy was developed to respond to the Mediterranean climate which is warm and dry between April to November yet wet and cold for the remainder of the year with snowfall even recorded during January and February. The centre’s sensitivity to these seasons will help to develop the young visitors’ environmental awareness as energy cycles will be openly shown within the building, thus enabling children to explore these changing states for themselves as part of their learning process.
Continuing with the energy saving theme, biomass boilers will be used in place of conventional gas or oil boilers to meet the thermal demands of the building using a sustainable fuel source. Combined heat and power (CHP) units are also planned to generate electricity; with any waste heat being recovered and used to service the building, reducing the overall heating energy demand.
The buildings principal source of cooling incorporates a ground cooling store system and an earth tube/labyrinth system. The offices, studio spaces and retail areas will be ventilated by dragging air through the earth tubes to pre-cool it followed by additional conditioning supplying to the area.
Ventilation for the galleries will be produced by passing air through hollowcore slabs from the courtyard. By using this system, air is heated and cooled passively, harnessing the thermal mass benefits of the heavyweight material.
Tom Hay, Buro Happold’s project leader said “This project is unique in that it gives the children of Syria the means to view the world around them through Syria’s incomparable cultural heritage. This is a milestone that will empower the children of Syria, and the Buro Happold Massar team feels proud and privileged to take part in this process.”
Cultural Innovations: Operational planning & project management, content
planning & development, exhibition masterplanning
Henning Larsen: Architectural design
Buro Happold Building services engineering, structural engineering,
ground engineering, fire engineering and risk assessment
(FEDRA), computational simulation and analysis
(CoSA), façade engineering, Inclusive Design, SAT
Martha Schwartz Ptrs Public realm, urban & landscape design
Note to Editors:
Buro Happold
Press office and practice information at www.burohappold.com
Images are available on request.
For more information, please contact:
Gill Sincock
Press and PR Manager
Tel +44 (0)1225 320600
Fax +44 (0)8707 874148
Email gill.sincock@burohappold.com
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976. It offers civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, inclusive design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
The Children’s Discovery Centre, Damascus
The Children’s Discovery Centre is the centrepiece of the Massar* youth development programme in Syria. The project will develop the most prominent and significant urban site in Syria to provide a world-class building with high quality internal spaces and design, learning facilities and opportunities.
The project’s social objectives are to open young Syrian minds to worlds and opportunities beyond formal education, to instil a sense of exploration, team work and individual responsibility, and to strengthen family and community values. A major aim of the Centre is to embody an exploration of Syrian national identity and provide a uniquely Syrian experience to encourage the positive contributions of young Syrians to the future development of the country.
Massar (The Children’s Project)
The Children’s Discovery Centre in Damascus is to be the centrepiece of the Massar Programme, a comprehensive integrated youth development programme which has already benefited over 50,000 young Syrians.
The programme (Massar roughly translates as ‘path’ or ‘journey’ in English) is sponsored by the Syria Trust for Development - the major Syrian organisation for educational, social and cultural development.
The programme’s aim is to reach all 8m children in Syria, as well as engaging expatriate Syrian children. The purpose is to open their minds to their own learning and personal development potential, to combat the country’s literacy and education deficits and to increase social inclusion and opportunity in a country where 40% of the population are under the age of 16.
The programme’s major components and projects include:
• the Children’s Discovery Centre in Damascus (a 15,000m2 facility to include 6,500m2 of galleries)
• regional city discovery centres
• an outreach educational experience - The Green Team
• a website
• TV campaigns
• print media campaigns
