Graduation Project Thesis. Youth Empowerment Center. Haneen Fraihat

I
University of Jordan,
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Architecture
The Leap
Youth Empowerment Center
Submitted by Haneen Ziyad Fraihat
Supervised by Dr. Omar Amireh
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of final graduation project
in Architecture
Academic Year 2019-2020

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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................................6
Goals And Objectives .......................................................................................................7
Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and literature review..................................10
Chapter 2: Site analysis..............................................................................................14
Site Criteria ......................................................................................................................14
Site proposals .................................................................................................................15
Macro Site Analysis ........................................................................................................20
Micro Site Analysis.........................................................................................................22
Chapter 3: Precedents analysis ....................................................................................26
1. Smart Innovation learning center........................................................................26
2. Palace Of School Children..................................................................................29
3. Julio Hernández house by Roof Arquitectos.................................................31
4. Stepping Park House by Vo Trong Nghia Architects .............................31
Chapter 4: Pragmatic thinking approach ....................................................................33
Activates And Events..................................................................................................33
Social-Ability And Time Related Activities.............................................................34
Connecting Empowerments And Activities.............................................................37
Legibility And Boundarylessness ...................................................................................40
Cubes.................................................................................................................................40
Program.............................................................................................................................43
Function Relations Diagram .......................................................................................45
Chapter 5: Conceptual Approach and Design............................................................45
Concept .............................................................................................................................46
Masses...............................................................................................................................46
Morphology.......................................................................................................................48
Experience Process.........................................................................................................49
Shots..................................................................................................................................50
References.............................................................................................................................53

III
List of Figures
Figure 1. process of creating an oriented youth, robot like........................................................ 7
Figure 2 Project’s Goals...................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 3 Project’s Objectives.............................................................................................................. 7
Figure 4 criteria of site selection....................................................................................................... 14
Figure 5 geographical top view of proposed sites............................................................................. 15
Figure 6 potentials evaluation comparison for the three proposed sites ........................................... 17
Figure 7 Properties evaluation comparison for the three proposed sites........................................... 17
Figure 8 Characteristics evaluation comparison for the three proposed sites ................................... 18
Figure 9 Conclusion of site criteria evaluation ................................................................................. 18
Figure 10 Alhussain Park Site Criteria............................................................................................. 19
Figure 11 Macro Site Location of Alhussain Park............................................................................ 20
Figure 12 Districts............................................................................................................................. 20
Figure 13 Accessibility to the site..................................................................................................... 20
Figure 15 Time Needed map.......................................................................................................... 21
Figure 14 Polarizing youth Map .................................................................................................... 21
Figure 16 Time needed map (2).................................................................................................... 21
Figure 17 Climate Graph................................................................................................................ 21
Figure 18 Sun Path............................................................................................................................ 21
Figure 19 Micro Analysis............................................................................................................... 22
Figure 20 Micro Map...................................................................................................................... 23
Figure 22 Detailed map..................................................................................................................... 24
Figure 21 3D View......................................................................................................................... 24
Figure 23 Horizontal Section ....................................................................................................... 25
Figure 24 panoramic view.............................................................................................................. 25
Figure 25 Longitudinal Section...................................................................................................... 25
Figure 26 Site Pictures .................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 27 ........................................................................................................................................... 26
Figure 28 ........................................................................................................................................... 27
Figure 29 Tree Uses .......................................................................................................................... 27
Figure 30 Dimension Analysis......................................................................................................... 28
Figure 31 Plan analysis ..................................................................................................................... 28
Figure 32 3D Zoning......................................................................................................................... 29
Figure 33 Case Plan and Section. Functions..................................................................................... 30
Figure 34 Case 3 ............................................................................................................................... 31
Figure 35 Case (4)............................................................................................................................. 32
Figure 36 List of Activities ............................................................................................................... 33
Figure 37 Social-Ability Vs Time Activities Graph ......................................................................... 34
Figure 38 Activities Process ............................................................................................................. 35
Figure 39 Conclusion graph of activities progress............................................................................ 36
Figure 40 Discover, Explore, Common Activities............................................................................ 39
Figure 41 Cubes Arrangement .......................................................................................................... 41
Figure 42 Cubes Sign........................................................................................................................ 41
Figure 43 Cubes Colors..................................................................................................................... 42
Figure 44 Interior Sketch .................................................................................................................. 43
Figure 45 Function Relations Bubble Diagram ................................................................................ 45
Figure 46 Schematic Plan ................................................................................................................. 47

IV
Figure 47 Morphology ...................................................................................................................... 48
Figure 48 ........................................................................................................................................... 49
Figure 50 3D Top View .................................................................................................................... 50
Figure 49 3D View (1)...................................................................................................................... 50
Figure 51 3D view (2)....................................................................................................................... 51
Figure 52 Schematic Section............................................................................................................ 51
Figure 53 3D View (3)...................................................................................................................... 52

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List of Tables
Table 1. The relation between Empowerments (goals) and objectives.............................................. 8
Table 2: Evaluation of sites based on Potentials properties and characteristics............................... 16
Table 3 Empowerments- Activities................................................................................................... 37
Table 4 Project Program ................................................................................................................... 44

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Introduction
“If you Judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole life believing
that it is stupid.”
Youth is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood
to adulthood’s independence. It is also the period in which adult identities are shaped
and through this society’s institutions and cultural beliefs are either reproduced or
remade. Thus, society plays a very big role in the making of youth. Jordan has
countless youth ideas and energy for innovation, yet it lacks the spread of the
innovation and initiating, also suffers the absences of public environment that can
incubate and support youth. If we understand the importance of youth’s role in solving
the economic problems, unemployment in particular, then we can give them the
support needed and put an end to this drawback. It is true that we have some
shattered companies that try to empower the youth, nonetheless, we are in the urge
for an environment with a monstrous footprint effect. That targets youth from 15
years old to 20 years old, considering this as the golden period in one’s character
life.
“The more we see people in terms of their unseen potential, the more we can use
our imagination rather than our money.” - Stephan Covey
When talking about youth in particular, regarding the economic situation of the
country, social problems may be facing those young people. A main social problem
arises from the very early days of any youth, the problem starts when the parents
and relatives consist of asking the child “what do you want to be when you grow
up”, unfortunately they are not aware of the dispersion they are creating inside of
their kid. The child at that age is not fully ready to give an answer, however, the
answer is given. The kid spends their life time trying to achieve the goal that he
mentioned in his very first years, they despite their true hidden inner abilities, they
concentrate on the abilities and skills needed to achieve that goal. They might be
using the wrong abilities, resulting in the unsuccessful end of that journey. Ensuing
the feel of disappointment and fear of failure, therefore, creating a lack of interest in
exploring, an absence of self-confidence thus adding a robot-like youth in the market
with zero energy to initiate or create. The phenomenon of orienting kids and youth
to whatever the society and family aim to or likes, is a disappointing factor of youth.
There is an intense need to stop orienting the youth to a prototype way of thinking
or to a typical way of living, a youth essentially should explore themselves, discover
and reveal the inner unique powers in them.

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Figure 1. process of creating an oriented youth, robot like.
Goals And Objectives
Therefor the main target for this project is to empower the youth with no boundaries
no society sculpting, reaching to each young person’s inner powers that will make
his life clear and healthier.
The goals and objectives of this project is as shown in the graphs below,
The goals were set in perspective to youth themselves and to society, since the youth
are the main effective group of the community, to also embrace their power and
important role. The main goal which is find or create a well-balanced youth consist
of types of empowerments which are also considered to be sub goals. The second
goal is support creative and innovative ideas, since there are many youths in our
community that are creative and already empowered in some majors through education
or hobbies or training, those creative youth should be sponsored and also given more
abilities to achieve their ideas and innovative thinking. The third goal, enhance turn
out on education, is accomplished when the youth are empowered and when they
reveal their uniqueness and what they actually like to do or study which also hit the
Figure 2 Project’s Goals Figure 3 Project’s Objectives

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fourth goal, creating a unique character for each young person therefor also enhance
youth’s productivity. Regarding the community, the fifth goal, a very important one,
is raising the awareness of youth role in society and that can be done by integrating
the society into the youth’s activities and their achievements.
There is also presets that should be done through the journey of empowering the
youth, those presets are also a social model, called the 4c’s of high order skills,
which consists of, 1. Creativity 2. Critical thinking 3. collaboration 4. Communication.
The objectives were mainly based on a research model by Lerner, which studied the
main 5c’s of a balanced healthy youth, then a 6th
C was added to complete all
respects that concerns the youth. The objectives are the way to reach the goals,
Table 1. The relation between Empowerments (goals) and objectives

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therefor the table below was made to show how much each type of empowerment is
achieved in relation to each objective.
For example, confidence, as an object, is mostly associated with psychological
empowerment. As for community empowerment, contribution and caring has the
strongest relation to achieve it. Organizational empowerment has the greatest association
with most of the objectives, the 6c’s. for economic empowerment the it is mostly
linked with the character objective, because whenever one is economic empowered,
knows how to take ownership and has business skills and entrepreneurial skills, then
the character is created and sustained. Social empowerment mostly concentrates on
competence and equally on the other objectives. Cultural empowerment also is focused
on the character, since the character is mainly made by the culture that a young
person lives in. a physical empowerment is correlated with confidence competence
and contribution.

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Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and literature review
The concept of youth could be seen as difficult to define, as it covers such a diverse
area, Pierre Bourdieu suggested that” youth is just a word” and that it “has been an
evolving concept” which has developed over the centuries into a social construction.
Youth could also be defined by some, especially in western societies as the” life
stages between childhood and adulthood” and becoming independent from dependent.
Some favor biological markers, in which youth is the period between puberty and
parenthood, while others define youth in terms of cultural markers “a distinct social
status with specific roles, rituals, and relationships”. Definitions of youth by age vary
drastically across different institutions; the UN has defined youth as person from 15
to 24 years of age.
Social anthropologists on the other hand try and understand the concept of youth
from a cultural perspective for instance rather than seeing it from biological view,
they study their behavior, cultural beliefs, family lives, social, political organizations
and their relationships with each other
Van Gennep 1960 studies the rites of passage, and states there are three stages: the
leaving behind of the familiar, living away from the community and thirdly
reintegration, he backs this up with the study of Nelson Mandela’s ignition of
becoming a man, Gennep 1960 re-enforces this idea with the ritual of circumcise as
some countries carry out rituals in order to publicly show “the transition from one
stage of a life to another”
However some may only define youth, especially by age as they can be seen to have
a vested interest for their own personal gain, their motivations may be different as
the media for instance may have an interest to inform, whereas connection service
see youth at the age of .as they have an interest in improving the lives of youth by
ways of empowering them into looking for work or improving their educational needs
to enable them to work, whereas the high street stores such as new look,
topshop/topman aim their establishments at youth as for private gain in making money
from them.
Empowerment:
The process of gaining freedom and power to do what you want or to control what
happens to you. The term empowerment refers to measures designed to increase the
degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities in order to
enable them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way,
acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming stronger and more
confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. Empowerment
as action refers both to the process of self-empowerment and to professional support

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of people, which enables them to overcome their sense of powerlessness and lack of
influence, and to recognize and use their resources. To do work with power.
Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young
people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change
in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults. Youth
empowerment is often addressed as a gateway to intergenerational equity, civic
engagement and democracy building. Many local, state, provincial, regional, national,
and international government agencies and nonprofit community-based organizations
provide programs centered on youth empowerment. Activities involved therein may
focus on youth-led media, youth rights, youth councils, youth activism, youth
involvement in community decision-making, and other methods.
Youth empowerment examines six interdependent dimensions: psychological,
community, organizational, economic, social and cultural. And Business may be added
since the business skills is important in our days and should be considered as a very
vital skills in youths’ life.
Psychological empowerment enhances individual's consciousness, belief in self-efficacy,
awareness and knowledge of problems and solutions and of how individuals can
address problems that harm their quality of life. This dimension aims to create self-
confidence and give youth the skills to acquire knowledge.
Community empowerment focuses on enhancing the community through leadership
development, improving communication, and creating a network of support to mobilize
the community to address concerns.
Organizational empowerment aims to create a base of resources for a community,
including voluntary organizations, unions and associations that aim to protect, promote
and advocate for the powerless.
Economic empowerment teaches entrepreneurial skills, how to take ownership of their
assets and how to have income security.
Social empowerment teaches youth about social inclusion and literacy as well as
helping kids find the resources to be proactive in their communities.
Cultural empowerment aims to recreate cultural practices and redefine cultural rules
and norms for youth. Through these dimensions of empowerment, programs can work
on empowering youth in one or more aspects of their lives.
Youth empowerment programs are aimed at creating healthier and higher qualities of
life for underprivileged or at-risk youth.[1] The five competencies of a healthy youth
are: (1) positive sense of self, (2) self- control, (3) decision-making skills, (4) a moral
system of belief, and (5) pro-social connectedness. Developmental interventions and
programs have to be anchored on these competencies that define positive outcomes
of healthy youth.[1]

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Youth empowerment programs thrive in positive developmental settings. Positive
developmental settings promote youth competence, confidence and connections. Two
features of the positive developmental youth settings are supportive relationships and
support for efficacy and mattering. Supportive relationships are those that are between
youth and non-familial adults that foster trust and respect. Support for efficacy and
mattering specifically focuses on youth being active, instrumental agents of change in
their communities, collective decision-making and adults listen to and respect their
voice
Another model is the 6C's model that focuses on emphasizing competence, confidence,
connection, character and caring, contribution to society.
4 need of youth
1. Need to Belong
Youth need to know they are cared about by others and feel a sense of connection
to others in the group. Youth must be given the opportunity to feel physically
and emotionally safe while actively participating in a group.
• Help group members to get to know each other through introductions, group
games, mixers, and small group activities.
• Create opportunities for members to interact with each other through their
projects work and group tasks.
• Develop traditions to welcome new members and celebrate individuals.
• Find ways to involve family and community members in as many activities as
possible.
2. The Need to Master
Youth need to feel and believe they are capable and experience success at solving
problems and meeting challenges to develop their self-confidence. By exploring
projects and activities, youth master skills to make positive career and life choices.
• Help youth find resources to explore their projects and activities.
• Provide project learning experiences.
• Model and teach that failure or frustration is not a disgrace but a part of the
learning experience. • Be fair and consistent when enforcing rules and giving
feedback.
3. The Need to be Independent
Youth need to know that they are able to influence people and events through
decision-making and action. By exercising independence through leadership
opportunities, youth mature in self-discipline and responsibility and learn to better
understand themselves
• Give youth opportunities to lead simple tasks and then progress to more difficult
ones.
• Recruit, train and support young people who are ready for more responsibility.
• Avoid jumping in to help unless you are really needed, encourage young
people to overcome obstacles on their own.
• Encourage, motivate and praise members who complete leadership roles.

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4. The Need to Be Generous
Youth need to feel their lives have meaning and purpose. By exploring community
service and citizenship activities, youth can connect to communities and learn to
give back to others.
• Have your group adopt a specific service project that fits their interests and
abilities and meets a community need
• Arrange tours of local sites and opportunities to get involved.
• Encourage youth to consider the feelings of others.
• Set up mentoring opportunities where youth learn from others.
Self-Discovery – The Key to a Real Education
Why is it that so many kids go through over a decade of ‘education’, yet come out
the other end without a sense of who they truly are? Surely, the education system
hasn’t done its job. Or, perhaps, the education system was never geared at helping
children learn who they are. If that is the case, as I daresay it is, what a
tragedy…Children need to have their passions, talents and interests nurtured from a
young age, and the system needs to stop restricting teachers so they can facilitate
this process – in the same way a gardener facilitates the growth of a flower.
Everything a child needs to be who they are is already there, it just needs to be
given the chance to come out. Meditation plays a key role in the self-discovery
process – it gives one a looking glass into the true nature of one’s being. When you
meditate, you turn inwards to meet with parts of yourself that you might not have
otherwise connected with. The feel of belonging with themselves.
Youth in Jordan
“The major challenge that stands in the way of achieving the dreams and aspiration
of the Jordanian youth is the slow pace of economic growth, and the consequential
decline in job opportunities particularly for the youth.” -His majesty King Abdullah
The issue of youth has become a major part of the king’s speech’s and a great
concern in the minds of all Jordanians. Since the major percentage of Jordanian
population is youth, 35.78% are in the age of 12-30. Yet, 18.4% of these youth are
unemployed. Every year 100000 young people start looking for jobs, however, a great
percentage of these young citizens are not well qualified or not fully prepared to face
the society or be an effective employee. Although education has greatly improved
over the past decades in the country, with extremely high percentages of enrolment
of citizens in education, and great educational attainment, nevertheless, this is not
translating into higher employment rate. The problem is based on many reasons,
mainly the deficiency of well given education, poor self-dependence and self-discovery,
the substandard of research and knowledge investigation skills and the spread of
disappointment, anxiety and uncertainty among the youth.

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Chapter 2: Site analysis
Site Criteria
The site criteria were set based on three categories, potentials, properties and
characteristics. Potentials are the chances that can meet the project’s intentions,
properties are the site features that are already there and the project can benefit
from it. The characteristics are the site components, like image slope and physical
qualities in the site and around it.
Figure 4 criteria of site selection
The main potential a site must have that it polarizes youth meaning that it should
be a good attraction point to the youth and that could be achieved by actually
being next to places that has youth already in it, plus that the site itself has a nice
nature and view. A site with optimal social benefit means that all kind of society
categories can advantage from that site not only the youth. It also must be visible
to confirm the fingerprint that it will create into changing the society’s vision to
the importance of youth’s role.
Properties like the site location next fun centers where youth are present on their
free and fun times, also it should be located near educational facilities so that
youth can come to the center after school. In addition, transportation is important
since youth have a great concern about distances and time needed to get to the
center.
A very significant characteristic is having an outdoor area so that youth can feel
that they’ve been out of closed areas, schools and houses.

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Site proposals
1. AlHussain Public Park
2. Business Park
3. Abdoun corridor
Each site was put under the same criteria and evaluated based on the potential,
properties and characteristics. The evaluation is as follows in the table:
Site 1: AlHussain Public Park
Site 2: Business Park
Site 3: Abdoun Corridor
Figure 5 geographical top view of proposed sites.

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Potentials Site 1 Site 2 Site3 Properties Site 1 Site 2 Site3 Characteristics Site 1 Site 2 Site3
Polarizes youth 5 5 2
Near Fun centres
(malls, parks. )
5 4 1 Available outdoor space 5 3 5
Near a place where
youth are present
5 5 1
Educational Facilities
around
4 4 1
Not very steep, (creating
wide outdoor area)
5 5 3
Optimal Social
Benefit
5 3 2 Accessible 4 2 5
Economical area
(encourages
investors)
3 4 5
Transportation
supported
4 3 2
Visibility 4 2 1 Social value 5 3 2
Urban context 3 3 2
Percentage 88% 76% 44% 70% 55% 45% 100% 80% 80%
Table 2: Evaluation of sites based on Potentials properties and characteristics

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Then a data graph was made for each category to better show the compression between
the three sites.
In the conclusion the result of the evaluation is compared between the three sites in
percentage, as the graph below shows,
Figure 6 potentials evaluation comparison for the three proposed sites
Figure 7 Properties evaluation comparison for the three proposed sites

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Figure 8 Characteristics evaluation comparison for the three proposed sites
Figure 9 Conclusion of site criteria evaluation

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In conclusion, Alhussain Park was the best site among the suggested, first it polarizes
youth, because of its location near many malls and that it is already a park that many
youths come to have fun and play in the courts and fields. That means it also fulfill the
criteria of youth are present in that area. Optimal social benefit is achieved in Alhussain
park, since the whole family can use the site, first the parents or elderly can use the trees
and the benches to set, second the children already have the children’s museum as a fun
place, and the youth will have the optimal center for them. The site is also visible since
it is on top of the mount next to Alhussain Mosque which is know to be visible from
many places in Amman. The properties of the site in Alhussain Public Park is that it is
near malls like city mall and mecca mall, it is already near the business park which also
can be considered as a polarizer of youth, the park it self with all the fields is considered
the biggest place for entertainment in Amman. Alhussain is surrounded with many
educational facilities like, Amman academy, British international academy, Modern
Montessori school, Dabouq Elementary Boys School, American Excellence school and the
Bacclouret school, as shown in the maps below. The site is accessible since its on the
main street that connects many districts including, Sweleh, Mahis, Fuhas, Khalda , Wadi
Elseer and Bader Aljadeda. Its true that the site is in western Amman but youth anyways
from all around the districts of Amman come to Alhussain Park. The site is also
transportation supported, with Amman Bus and other public busses. Alhussain Park has a
social value since its known in the whole country for its importance and its big role in
creating an entertainment place. The availability of outdoor space is high since it’s already
in a park.
Figure 10 Alhussain Park Site Criteria

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The site Alhussain Park is located
in Jordan Amman, Sweleh.
Sweleh is surrounded with
Khalda, Tala’a Alali, Zahran, Wadi
Elseer, Badr ALJadeda And Mahis.
That makes the park centered
between many important areas of
Amman that is full of urban
context and full of youth.
The roads around the park are ,
An arterial, King Abdullah II
Street, and a major collector,
Alsh’ab street, minor collectors,
Saad Khair street and Mohammad
Saad AlBataineh. Inside the park
there are many local streets, 8
meters wide street passes
through the site selected. The site
is also accessible by foot when
the users go inside Alhussain
park.
Macro Site Analysis
Figure 11 Macro Site Location of Alhussain
Park
Figure 12 Districts
Figure 13 Accessibility to the site.

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Figure 15 Polarizing youth Map
Showing polarizers of youth spots around the selected site.
Mecca Mall , City mall, Royal Cars Museum, Park Fieldes,
Business Park
Figure 18 Sun Path
around the site, this is important for knowing where
to place the shadowed zones or the zones that
can be directed to sunlight.
Figure 14 Time Needed map
to reach the site from the university of Jordan which
is a main point for transportation. 20 minutes
Figure 16 Time needed map (2)
from Almadina Circle also a main point for transportation and
centered in Amman. 9 minutes
Figure 17 Climate Graph
that shows the temperature of Amman, the average degree in summer is 32 and
the average degree in winter is 18 which conclude that it is possible to have
outdoor activities both in winter and summer.

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Micro Site Analysis
Figure 19 Micro Analysis
of the site showing the benefits on the youth, the diversity, how the site and the project can exchange functions, and the slop of the site.

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Figure 20 Micro Map
shows a map of Alhussain Park and highlighted is the site in orange with the contour.
The site is on two parts of land, 8 meters street through them. Contour period is 5
meters, so the slope of the site is almost 15 meters.

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`
Figure 21 Detailed map
of the site with the borders and trees mapping based on Google Earth.
Figure 22 3D View
of the site, showing its location to the children
museum and Alhussain Mosque.

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Figure 23 Horizontal Section
inside one part of the site showing the horizontal slope and its almost flat
Figure 25 Longitudinal Section
of the two lands of the site showing the slope from high slope point on the left land and how it decreases 15
meters to the other side on the right
Figure 24 panoramic view
of the site showing the street that passes through the site
Figure 26 Site Pictures
Some Picture from the site showing the different types of trees in the site, where are many small trees that don’t
grow up to high heights

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Chapter 3: Precedents analysis
1. Smart Innovation learning center
Meanwhile, in order to maximize the smart innovative function , the space design is
mainly focus on the main users (students). We follow the design concept of the
"hidden education" (ie, children's psychology, behavior & cognitive science etc.) and
emphasize this point on all the design elements, thus to create the most appropriate
smart innovative environment.
To create a new experiential and smart innovation space for students, we found the
dense columns to be the biggest issue during the design. While on the other hand,
would we take advantage of them? So our designers start reverse thinking and thus
lead birth to our main design concept of "Innovation Cubes in the Forest."
Dense columns seem just like trees in the forest. We cleverly combined them with
the room, the furniture and all the public spaces in order to create an interesting
green learning space with rich experiences. This design concept also reflects the
harmony between human being and the nature. As there are too many columns, the
traditional horizontal and vertical arrangement would lead to inefficient use of internal
Figure 27

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space, so we rotate
each group of cube and
adjust the distance
between the columns
and the cubes and the
angle between cubes so
as to maximize the
available room
meanwhile taking care
of the overall aesthetics
of the space.
Figure 28
Figure 29 Tree Uses

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Figure 30 Dimension Analysis
Figure 31 Plan analysis

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2. Palace Of School Children
Youth Center, Recreation & Training
Architects: Studio 44 Architects
Area:18700.0 m², Year: 2011
Figure 32 3D Zoning

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Figure 33 Case Plan and Section. Functions

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3. Julio Hernández house by Roof Arquitectos
A "forest" of sweet gum trees grows through openings in the concrete slabs of this house in
Morelia, Mexico, by Roof Arquitectos, providing an alternative to a central courtyard
Figure 34 Case 3

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4. Stepping Park House by Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Figure 35 Case (4)

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Chapter 4: Pragmatic thinking approach
Activates And Events
Figure 36 List of Activities
The list on the left is a list
of activities that has been
concluded from the
empowerments and each goal
from them. The activities are
not necessarily the same as
the function of each space but
what the youth will be doing
in a certain space.
Labs and training are based
on the 7 main types of
discovering and exploring,
which are, Sciences,
Technology, Health, Design,
Culture, Coding and Business.
These majors where selected
since they comprehend the
youth from all sides in life.
Outreach is a group of
activities that empower the
sense of challenging and
competing but in a way that
each youth will feel successful
since the competitions will be
only of Win-Win kind, where
even if a youth didn’t rank
the highest, they will still feel
that they won something.
Exhibitions may be done
within the center between
youth, they also can be
exhibited to the community to
also ensure the youth’s role in
society and this will make
them feel more confidant and
important.

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Social-Ability And Time Related Activities
Since the activities are directed to youth, it is known that youths are different and
divers in particular with the ability to stay or set for long time on the same activity,
that’s why the activities varied from limited time or free time, so that all kind of
youths can feel satisfied with the activities. Also, the activities must take into
consideration how social or individual the activity is, since also the youths differ in
the ability to compensate with their colleagues or the society in general. To show
how the list of activities done that, a graph was made of Social-Ability Vs Time
activities. Then each activity was spotted into the graph depending on how time
limited or freed it is and also how social-able the activity is. Social-Ability was
divided into individual, social and communal. Time had a scale from limited time to
free time. For example, the most individual activity, among the listed, is discovering
and learning, yet, learning can be time limited, however, discovering is more of a
free time activity, since more time should be given to discovering and exploring. The
most communal activity, is volunteering, which falls under the type of organizational
empowerment, because volunteering is mostly connected with the community more
than the society. The difference between society and community is that society in
this case are the people around the youth in the empowerment center, however,
community is the whole city people who can be in touch with the youths either in
the center when exhibits are created or outside the center, when youths are volunteering
Figure 37 Social-Ability Vs Time Activities Graph

35
for instance. The graph ensures that the activities were distributed to fulfill all the
types of social-time related enterprises and functions.
Youth Activities Life- Based Process
A youth in general in life would go through 3 different stages, in order for one to
find his or her character. These three stages are preparation, transition and guidance.
A youth must be first prepared and given the needed information in order for him
or her to make a transition, then one can be guided into the right and shown the
result of one achievements and transitions. Each activity was placed into the suitable
stage, so first the youth starts from preparation with discovering, then youth innovates
a certain idea which from it goes to exploring. Exploring includes experiencing,
training, learning and research. However, an important issue that faces all educational
organizations, that youth “get bored” very easily and try to jump from one place to
another if they didn’t find the place they are at interesting enough. Therefore, the
theme for this stage should be fun and communication so that the process they are
going through will enthuse them to continue and go around the whole center to
acquire as much knowledge and empowerment as possible. After youths gain the
needed knowledge, they interact, either with other youths or with experts and
professional to express their ideas communicate and discuss. Then youth get to rethink
whether what they had or what they learned is more right in their perspective.
Rethinking can result in one of the following, replace, replacing what they had with
what they learned, renew, totally restate their ideas, exchange, by taking some ideas
Figure 38 Activities Process

36
and keeping some while connecting to others and change, completely change the idea
they have. When change is done, by the guidance of professionals and experts, youth
can simulate what they achieved or reached, then those professionals can evaluate the
results. Youth can also exhibit their accomplishments and results, to their colleagues
or to the community as mentioned before. Resulting in creating a common area for
discussion, arguments, debates and conversations that will be beneficial for both youth
and other contributors in the common area.
A graph was created to better show how youth process through the stages. The yellow
steps are the preparing stage, starting from discovering to innovating the exploring,
outreach, experiencing, then the last two steps were taken from the last stage,
presenting and simulating. The more youth step up the process the less time the
activity needs, that’s why the yellow steps get shorter. The blue arrow shows the
transition stage, and how the last substage is change, where the arrow rotates into a
box, which is the result that a youth would reach, bordered by guidance, applying,
evaluating and the common area. The brown arrow on the right shows the measure
of how youth progress in the empowerment goal of this intervention.
Figure 39 Conclusion graph of activities progress.

37
Connecting Empowerments And Activities
Table 3 Empowerments- Activities

38
The table above shows the relation between each activity and empowerment.
First, the empowerments were divided into detailed empowerments goals, to better
understand in particular each empowerment what will achieve. The detailed goals were
made based on a research mentioned in Chapter.1. the relation between each activity
and the empowerments can be one of four, or sometimes it can fulfill more than one
relation. It can be a base, where the in order to acquire this empowerment you have
to do this kind of activity. Or a bolster, which means that a certain activity can
improve or boost a particular empowerment. The third type of relation is “part of”,
which means that the activity is part of the process to get to the empowerment goal.
The last type of relation is, result, if the activity is done then as a result of it the
empowerment is reached.
For example, when youth does exhibitions and outreach activities as a result the self-
confidence as a part of the psychological empowerment is attained. However,
exhibitions also can be a bolster for self-confidence. It can, in addition, be part of
leadership of development and community improvement as part of the community
empowerment. Another example, volunteering, needs interacting as a base, the
outreach activities can play a bolster, entertaining and experimenting can be part of
this empowerment and as a result of voluntary, exchange is realized.
Learning is a very important base for many empowerments, like the economic
empowerment, where youth need to learn about the entrepreneurial skills, ownership
proficiency and business inelegance. Experimenting and training are a bolster for what
youth could learn in the economic empowerments.
Social empowerments, including social inclusion and being proactive consist of mainly
interacting as a base and a bolster, exhibitions can be part of this empowerment and
when exchanging is done it results in the social empowerment.
Cultural empowerment is a very vital yet not very recognized type of youth
empowerment, since the globalization is playing a role in fading away the identity of
our culture and the society in general, youth in particular, withdrawal from our culture.
There for one of the important goals in culture empowerment, is enhancing cultural
knowledge, diversity acceptance between youth who would come from different types
and places in the country and most important, reinforce youth’s identity. Learning,
interacting and presenting are important activities as a base of achieving this
empowerment.

39
Activities Types
The main two activities that a youth could start from to the journey of empowerment
is discover, and explore. But what is the difference between discover and explore? If
a youth had some idea but knows nothing about the details and the knowledge behind
this idea, then he will be in the discover stage, where there is a starting point and
from it, he can move through some activities to get to the exploration. On the other
hand, if a youth has many ideas and needs to organize them and study in order to
come with a conclusion, then he is moving from exploration to discovering.
Accordingly, explore and discover is a vise versa relation of the process of a youth’s
knowledge. Therefore, the list of activities mentioned before were also categorized
into either explore or discover. However, some activities can be both or can be
considered as connection between the two, so was listed in the common category.
From this categorizing and knowledge collecting process emerged the concept of the
project.
Figure 40 Discover, Explore, Common Activities.

40
Legibility And Boundarylessness
Youth always have the desire to feel responsible and independent, therefore, the design
should consider this very important psychological issue in the minds of youth.
Legibility is a key theme to prevent facing a problem like that.
Legibility can be defined as the quality of being clear enough to read. It’s a people-
centered approach to design, uses an easily recognized pattern for the
overall configuration of the workplace with visual access to landmarks,
signage, and architectural elements. When we enter into a space, we first
create a “mental map” of what that overall space looks like. We look
for markers that tell us how different spaces should be used, how to
identify the space we want, and how to navigate through the space. The
more obvious the answers to these questions, the fewer resources (cognitive
effort, energy, and time) we need to get where we want to go. The
higher the legibility the easier it is for youth to assimilate the chances and choices
available for them in the center.
Consequently, preventing the very first problem mentioned, orienting youth, from
happening. When the journey of the youth in the center is legible enough, youth will
by default feel self-confidant and self-reliable, they will be freed from someone forcing
them to choose what they are supposed to. This will result in psychological
empowerment too. In addition to legibility, one vital issue that can be proposed, is
the boundarylessness of the function and spaces of the journey that the youth will
experience. Boundarylessness also support the idea of self-empowerment and the same
idea that legibility achieves.
Cubes
Since the site is full of trees, and building a great footprint building is not a choice,
inspired from the first case study mentioned, the project will consist of a group of
cubes distributed among the site, around the trees, wherever a free space is found.
That will first of all protect the trees rather than uprooting them. The tree can either
be outside the borders of a space or cube, or may, if the area is dense with trees,
be part of the space. The tree leg can also be benefited from, without hurting the
tree, it can be used as a column to hang stuff on it, like boards, or signs. It can
also play a role as part of the furniture, a circular chair around it.
The presence of trees as mentioned in the site analysis empower the feel of
responsibility toward nature in youths.

41
Cubes can be arranged in three main orders, either as space, a framed space or a
defined area. As shown in the figure below, space arrangement is the cube itself
where it holds one kind of activity. A framed Space, also hold one kind of activity,
however, this activity holds different sorts of it, therefor, the cubes are arranged into
a framed space, this will be explained more in the next section. A defined area is
an area that has been created by the surrounding either from cubes, spaced or framed, and
trees.
Each cube may differ in activity, area, height and color. Height mainly depends on
the activity held in the cube. Area differ according to the activity and the distribution
of the trees in the area. A unique life-full color has been set to each kind of type
of knowledge, blue for coding, orange for technology, yellow for culture, green for
health, purple for sciences, red for design and dark blue for business. Adding colors
can increase the legibility experience and the wholeness of
the cognitive map. Signs around the center may be added to as
guides for youths to know which cube they will head to
according to their interests and decision.
Each cube is approximately 10*10, 100m2.
Which according
to educational institute design standards, can fit 25 persons.
Each person needs 4 m2.
Figure 41 Cubes Arrangement
Space Framing Defined Area
Figure 42 Cubes Sign

42
Cube Colors
Coding
Culture Health
Sciences
Design
Technology Business
Figure 43 Cubes Colors

43
Program
Each activity type, explore, discover, common activities, has specific activities or
functions, each function was divided or specified with a clear function experienced in
the space. Exploring has outreach activities, like competitions, training in different
majors like business, self-awareness, and technology. Exchange is a space for
knowledge communication. Evaluation happens in specified rooms to evaluate the
results a youth has come up with. Discovering includes learning, with the 7 majors
mentioned in the previous section, research, including labs and feedback spaces.
Exhibitions, with indoor and outdoor Galleries. Simulation, expressed as virtual reality
rooms.
The common activities, are experimenting, with the 7 majors too. A common area as
an auditorium. Discussion spaces in the 7 majors too. Interactive capsules. Entertaining
spaces like gaming and billiards, chess and most importantly physical entertainment
like yoga and aerobics.
Then each activity or function was given the suitable number of cubes needed as an
area to fit the activity. As shown in the program, learning and experimenting has the
highest number or cubes since it need the biggest area, because it has many different
majors in it.
Then each activity was specified with the suitable arrangement for the experience to
be held in that space. For example, entertaining and exchanging knowledge can just
be held in a defined space with no boundaries. Nevertheless, learning needs a semi
bounded space, with the framing arrangement of the cubes, this is also the case for
training, research, exhibitions and discussions. Evaluation rooms is specified with space
arrangement cubes.
Figure 44 Interior Sketch

45
Function Relations Diagram
The first set of bubbles are the explore activities, training is the most important
activity, its strongly connected to exchanging knowledge, it the prerequisite to
evolution. After evolution is the outreach activities. Exchanging knowledge has a
medium relation to the outreach activities, however it is also connected to the
simulation from the discovering activities. Training has a great connection with
learning , learning with
research, research with
experimenting, since these
main functions can be
considered as the main
way to gain knowledge
and have the milestones in
empowerments. Learning
and research must be
done before moving to
simulation. After youths
simulate their discoveries
and explorations, they
exhibit it.
In the common activities,
the common area is the
dominant function, since
interacting entertainment,
physical activities, and
discussion all need a
common area or a social
space to be done. Common
area also has a very strong
relation with exhibitions.
Figure 45 Function Relations Bubble Diagram

46
Chapter 5: Conceptual Approach and Design
Concept
Exploration with clear legibility, a boundarylessness experience.
Masses
Since the site has many trees the best solution was to have a number of cubes
distributed among the trees and around them, preventing any trees from being cut or
uprooted. The cubes also play a role in making an enthusiastic design for youths,
with the bright and different colors, it will be very eye catchy to them.
As the site is divided on two sides of the street, this will ensure the idea of diversity
between youths, therefore, one mass will be put on the western side of the street and
another on the eastern side, taking into consideration the placement of trees. The
slope of the two parts of the land is also helpful, because one land is high the other
is almost 10 meters lower. The left side land will have the “Discovery” Mass, where
the right one will have the “exploration” mass. Confirming the two types of activities.
A bridging mass above the street will have the common activities, this mass will also
have a big impact on both masses by subtracting from them.
The “Discovery” Mass will have its cubes directly on the ground because the number
of trees is less on that area, also, because of the height of the land, if cubes were
placed on top it will give a disturbing impact on the context especially on Alhussain
Mosque. Above the cubes will be added a sheltering structure.
Whereas for the “Exploration” Mass, the trees are elevated about 5 meters, in order
to give more space for trees and not have a huge effect on them. The opposing of
cubes location in relation to the site also affirm the concept of diversity. Under the
elevated cubes more activities can be done between the trees.
The common area above the street will have the common activities and will also
have guides instead of receptionist , to guide the youths where would they want to
go. This mass will have simulators, signs and screens that would give a quick preview
journey of the center, so that youths can build their cognitive map of the place, and
already create a decision where their tendencies are to.
As a circulation element, panoramic spheres have been added connecting the common
mass with each of the other two masses. The spheres play a big role in legibility,
and boundarylessness, because they allow youths to have an overall view of the center
while they are going up.

47
The plan below shows how cubes are distributed through trees, the bigger mass on
the right is the exploring mass, where the smaller one is the discovering mass. The
blue mass in between is the common mass.
Figure 46 Schematic Plan

48
Place colored cubes: on the
site for western mass,
elevated for the eastern side
Adding Sheltering Structure
above cubes.
Adding foundation structure
below cubes. With cut slap
where a tree is found
Bridging mass
Panoramic Spheres as
Circulation Elements
Figure 47 Morphology
Morphology

49
Figure 48
The picture above shows the first-floor level of the exploring mass, where the cubes are
elevated and more space is given around the trees.
Experience Process
Youth come from either the street or the walking path on the right of street, the
entrances will be either on the walkway, or on the other side but offsite form the
street for the discovery mass. Youth will directly go upstairs through the panoramic
sphere which have elevators. Once they are upstairs, guides will be awaiting them in
order to show them the simulators in which they see they whole center, and what
process they can go through. Then based on each youth’s desire they either go to
the exploration or to the discovery activities, but they wouldn’t know what each mass
is called. In this the boundarylessness is achieved and legibility too. After that they
will follow the process in which was mentioned previously. As part of legibility and
the cognitive map, the colored cubes will be a great tool to show them where to
Shot

50
Figure 49 3D Top View
Figure 50 3D View (1)
Shots

51
Figure 52 Schematic Section
Figure 51 3D view (2)

53
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