The American University of Beirut (AUB) will be transforming into a tobacco-free campus by January 2018. Last June, the Tobacco-Free Task Force in collaboration with the AUB Neighborhood Initiative launched a student competition to design newly designated smoking areas outside the campus. By creating off-campus smoking areas, AUB aims to promote a crowd-free zone in the immediate surroundings of the gates, thus securing an easy flow in and out of the campus (as per International standards, smoking is not allowed within 25ft. (7.5m) from the entrances to tobacco-free areas). Having designated smoking areas near all the gates with cigarette recycling bins will help keep our sidewalks clean, contribute to the recycling of waste in the city, and thus help protect the environment from the toxic chemicals in the cigarette butts that mostly and sadly end up in our sea.
The aim of this competition was to encourage the students to apply their knowledge to come up with sustainable eco-design solutions to a real-life problem. The target users would include the AUB community of students, faculty, and staff in addition to visitors, neighbors and the general public.
Six entries were submitted by different multidisciplinary groups, totaling 19 students from different majors, including Architecture, Landscape Design, Civil, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. The proposals presented different creative approaches to the chosen sites and interesting cigarette recycling bin designs. In September, all the competition entries were exhibited for a week in the West Hall Common Room and three of the entries received their prizes from Dr. Fadlo Khuri during the award ceremony at the exhibition opening.
You can check the links below. for more details about the competition and the campaign.
Discussion of entries and selection of the winners by the competition jury
Exhibition of the Off Campus Smoking Areas Design Competition entries
