ANTAKYA, Turkey — Inside a temporary metal shelter in a dense refugee camp, Abdelwahed, a mason and father of 7, sat in contemplative silence for nearly a week after his shell-shocked family arrived here in June. His children’s legs hurt from the three-day hike into Turkey across the mountainous border from war-torn Syria. It was the lost look in their eyes that hurt him.

Then, the weathered, thin 50-year-old had something of an epiphany. ‘‘I had no answer when they asked when we would go home. So I thought, I will build our town here.’’