DESIGN IDEA 

Improving the current situation of gender difference in Baghare was the focal point of our project. The idea of creating a women’s house that would value and give importance to the image of African women became the inspiration behind our design. To achieve our goal we decided to offer a women house that would host an interactive space with labs where women could develop their artisanal skills by working and learning together. Other spaces would be a meeting hall where awareness and problems could be discussed from the women of the village or from institutions and associations of the area. 

Besides the meeting hall and labs there would also be an administration office and exhibition where the final products from the labs could be promoted or even sold, this would results in helping women learn that they can achieve their own earnings and help contribute in softening their families poverty.  

The first step to design our ideal women’s house was placing a solid volume in a strategic location within the sites perimeters , by doing so we knew we wanted to locate the exhibition and administration offices facing the main road to grab the attention of the community. The other spaces like the labs and the meeting hall would be placed on the back close to the crops and to create a more safe and calmer work environment. These spaces would all revolve around a courtyard that would help ventilate the spaces during hot dry months and help collect rain water. By locating where the spaces would be, indirectly we designed the circulation within the structure.

Our next step was to make the space flexible and adaptable for different activities. To do so we incorporated folding panels with bamboo shielding that would close and open when necessary. The panels transform the two labs into one and open the meeting hall and exhibition when needed. The flexibility makes the structure accommodate and adjust easily for other uses and  it also enables us to control the privacy level between the units and the relationship between the inside and the outside space. Coupled with the wooden shields the spaces are also framed by wooden walls with plants and herbs on them. The rest of the walls are heavy rammed earth walls that wont penetrate light and create the right amount of shadows needed within the structure.

While designing the last step was to ventilate the spaces. To do so the walls and the roof have a void space in between them. To maintain an adequate internal temperature the roof also helped in ventilating with its open wooden trusses and it also shades the structure with it elongation on each corner to protect it from the hot sun rays of southern Africa.