The Masahetna Competition was a participatory design initiative launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many humanitarian services in Azraq Refugee Camp to pause. With public play areas closed and families confined indoors, the project asked a simple but powerful question: What if the home could become a playground?

I designed and led this competition to invite families — particularly caregivers and their children — to reimagine their own shelters as spaces for play, creativity, and bonding. Instead of providing a fixed design solution, I facilitated a framework where participants became the designers of their own environments, using curated kits and their own ingenuity to transform limited space into joyful, child-centered environments.

Design Process

1. Contextual Research
At the start of the pandemic, I conducted informal interviews and observed the shift in family dynamics due to lockdown restrictions. Play, which was already limited in refugee contexts, became even more inaccessible.

2. Competition Design & Kit Curation
I designed simple “design kits” with playful, flexible materials such as fabric, cardboard, paper, string, and markers — all of which could be used creatively and safely in homes. The goal was not to dictate a final product, but to enable exploration, improvisation, and co-creation between caregivers and children.

3. Community Facilitation
Families were invited to participate in a friendly design challenge: co-create a play space inside their shelter. The framing of a competition sparked excitement and participation while subtly building design capacity and family dialogue around child-centered environments.

4. Documentation & Impact Evaluation
Participants shared photos, drawings, and stories of their play-space transformations. After the competition, I conducted surveys and conversations with caregivers to understand the emotional, social, and spatial impact of the initiative.