Home to more Syrian refugees than all of Europe, Istanbul’s refugee population has now surpassed 330,000. While there are refugees now living in all parts of the city, the Fatih district is where their population is most dense, giving it a new nickname: ‘Little Syria’. Many of the Syrians in Istanbul who fled from the violence of their home country find themselves living on the street or in abandoned or rundown houses. In addition, they now compete with Turkish citizens for jobs while many men, women, and children are begging on the street to survive. The state of the refugee crisis in Istanbul makes the city the perfect location for a school for young refugee women.

This project not only aims to provide education to some of the 400,000 Syrian children in Turkey who are not enrolled in formal education, but to also provide a positive space where the refugees can start to heal their minds. It is well known that those who have suffered from traumatic events tend not to reach their full potential in their education. Studies have shown that people in a community who share similar experiences tend to heal faster, but contact with others is not always the only method. To combat this effect on the young women who will study here there are carefully designed communal spaces on the site. Some studies point to a careful combination of both privacy and company. The individual must be comfortable in a group to properly heal. To ease the transition from isolation to inclusion in the group of refugees there are private niches within the public spaces. The private niches can be completely closed off if the need for retreat arises, but after time the individual will open up the space and open their minds to the healing process of communal therapy.