Syrian Children’s Imagination and Play Areas beyond the Physical Reality of Urban Spaces in Beirut

This study examines the play areas of displaced Syrian children in Beirut. It depicts informal play areas and patterns in the centre of the city and those that emerge in the informal settlements of the Burj Al-Barajneh Palestinian camp. The study depicts the children’s ability to understand the environment around them while transforming it into a stage for loosely structured forms of play. It is important to note that the article does not aim to portray the dense and overcrowded urban setting of Beirut and its informal settlements as favourable environments for children at play. Instead, the discussion focuses on the children’s ability to re-semanticize and colonize anonymous places. Our aim is to demonstrate that Syrian displaced children develop a cognitive relationship to the spaces around them that goes beyond the physical boundaries of their play areas. Additionally, we argue that the formal urban fabric and the local population of the city alienate these children by maintaining their status as strangers or ‘others’. Despite the dire conditions and the seemingly chaotic setting of the informal camp settlement, Syrian children residing there are able to free themselves from the perception of estrangement and integrate as part of their new context.