As the Karantina area directly borders the port, the Beirut explosion has severely affected this area. The high level of destruction was accompanied by hyperinflation, economic crisis in Lebanon, and the COVID19 Pandemic further fueling the hardships the community was already suffering from.

In this context, Design 4 Community NGO (D4C) and the Design Impact Laboratory (DI-Lab) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) have joined forces with Shelsh NGO to respond to this catastrophic state and ease the suffering of the Karantina community.

Our creative team, in collaboration with the Shelsh NGO, aspires to upgrade and transform a makeshift soup kitchen into a multifunctional, educational, and dynamic relief hub that inspires effective partnerships and community engagement. The kitchen needs to be transformed into a hygienic and healthy environment for the preparation of hot meals for 800 people and more. The courtyard in front of the kitchen, where people at noon stand in line to gather their packaged meal, is barren, desolate and unprotected from sun or rain.