Olive Grove Park

This is a program in partnership between Design Palestine, a collective of design professionals in the US and Palestine, and 1for3, a US-based Palestinian non-profit. Together we support Palestinian refugee communities in the West Bank. Our goal is to provide professional support for community-generated projects of positive self-determination, grassroots organizing, and life-affirming creativity. 

Contributions can be made by clicking on the DONATE button above. Or, to save on the processing fee, meaning that your entire gift will go to the project, make a check out to 1for3.org and send it to 58 N. Border Road, Winchester, MA., 01890. Put Olive Grove Project in the memo line.

Olive Grove Project

 enhancing public space

Just inside the UN-run Aida refugee camp (right behind the Lajee Center and ZAY kindergarten), is a park with a grove of mature olive trees. This park is an oasis among concrete - walls, narrow streets, and buildings - and an Israeli military base and looming apartheid wall. Among the olive trees, elders chat in the shade. Families picnic. Children run and play, enjoying swings and climbing structures. Energetic cheers of footballers reverberate from the adjacent pitch.

As precious as this space already is, the community sees potential for it to be even better. The Olive Grove Park will include new community gardens for residents to plant food, peaceful shaded spots for families to gather, and a safer, more engaging playground. The soccer pitch will have improved facilities for welcoming visiting teams and storing equipment. And being mindful of sustainability, the project will use native plants throughout.

Hyper-local Labor and Materials

All materials and labor will come from Palestine. This committment to local sourcing amplifies impact by expanding professional opportunities to many qualified community members, and embedding a sense of love and pride in the finished projects.

Improving the Olive Grove Park is more than just a physical renovation project. It is an opportunity to celebrate life, creativity, and self-determination. In this spirit, we launched a student design competition for two new key features in the new Olive Grove Park: a beautiful enclosure around the new community garden and a protective shade covering over the playground.

About the Competition

Working with the Lajee Center, Design Palestine invited architecture, engineering, landscape design, and urban planning students to participate in an international competition leading to a built project overseen by the winning team. We seek to create a collaborative community that empowers students, especially Palestinian students. We believe this collaboration will inspire transformative agency for future generations.

The competition focuses on two key areas of the Olive Grove Park.

Community Garden Enclosure:

An existing decommissioned water feature will be repurposed into planting beds for community use. A new, beautiful enclosure will protect the garden, while maintaining visibility and accessibility.

Playground and Shade Structure:

Existing playground features will be relocated and rehabilitated. New ground material will be installed for safety and maintenance. In addition, a shade structure will be added to make the playground more comfortable under the hot sun.

Submissions will be judged by a professional panel according to clear benchmarks including creativity and innovation, budget and feasibility, sustainability, aesthetic and cultural integration, and community engagement.

Design Palestine will raise funds for the construction of the winning design, and will offer the winning participants opportunities to travel to the site and oversee construction.

We recognize the challenges of building during this time of ongoing oppression and Israeli military occupation. Now more than ever, we must continue to build.

It is in our professional DNA to assert a positive, regenerative tomorrow - to envision a more whole and just future through the worlds we draw and build.

We take inspiration from and model after the Palestinian refugee communities with whom we partner. They demonstrate what it means to create, commit to, and love their communities - both the people and the land they inhabit. We lean on this positive and resilient outlook as we forge ahead to preserve and restore a vital open space, the beautiful Olive Grove Park.

A Big Project With Lots of Small Parts

The items below are some of the ways your donation will be used.