In the wake of the port explosion, thoughts of play were far from most people’s minds. In times of turmoil, play perhaps seems superfluous, a luxury. So why were Sandra Al Rishani ‘99 and fellow architects, Nada Borgi and Etienne Bastormaji, inspired to focus on children’s play space in their post-blast reconstruction initiative Let’s Play?

Like so many others, on August 4th, Rishani’s life flipped upsidedown. As an architect and expert in urban development, her skills were in high demand from a number of organizations. She wanted to participate; however, grieving her own losses, she struggled to throw herself into these immediate relief efforts.