Kaira Looro Architecture Competition | Elif Dogan, Kardelen Kurt, Kemal Ilker Aldemir
Given that gender equality is unachieved even worldwide, the gender gap and its consequences affect women far worse in the least developed countries. African women are facing a lack of civil and political rights ranging from pauperism to the right to say. In Baghere village, besides the existent development activities, there is still a need to make women visible and audible in society. Hence, the Women's House of Sedhiou was designed to create a multifunctional center that can enable and facilitate the empowerment of the local women.
The building is located with an inviting approach in connection to both secondary roads that lead the village residents to the main road. Instead of designing a main entrance serving to the main road with an architectural and social reflex, two entrances were provided to connect the secondary roads, aiming to make the women's center as a connotation to the role of women in society.
The project consists of two separate L masses whose inward parts are facing each other, a courtyard(semi-open), and sojourn areas (open) with an elevated platform ranging from 18 to 54 cm above the ground. The long edges of the L shapes are positioned to align with each other, and the sliding inner panels can be manipulated to create a convenient / spacious area that include the courtyard to host weekly activities. In courtyard, another sacred tree is imagined which is planted by local women to represent their desire for recuperative forms of self and collective empowerment. Using the moveable wooden panel walls, the venues’ flexible/ adaptable character is obtained and leads us to operate many functions both separately and in a holistic approach.
The L1 serves as a management on the corner, aiming to be accessible for the main road / the secondary roads of the village. The long edge of L1 which looks toward the school area functions as a platform of capacity building which includes a library and classes. They are hosting daily educational activities ranging from primary education and to enlightenment activities. It is a long-term goal to equalize women's presence in hegemonic society by increasing women's capacity, providing them with access to good and up-to-date information especially in agricultural aspect, and ensuring the awareness of their rights in land.
In the L2, a visual connection is established with the rice fields intending to emphasize unifying and developing the role of production. The long edge of the unit works as a local production workshop to share knowledge and sustain collective memory. Generating an economy is one of the key concepts of the project and attached to the workshop there is a passage-like marketplace that the women sell their products of workshops. Aiming at providing a pedestrian flow between secondary roads, the passage's height level kept at 18 cm. Dividing the entrances into wide platforms, whilst the relationship with the surrounding area is taken into account, the height difference turned into areas to interact on rather than a regular staircase. The walls are imagined as outer shells which provide light access and airflow by using local fence meshes.
''As spatial representations of deeply rooted inequalities, places carry powerful social meanings that can be embodied by their residents.'' (Mark Padilla, 2014)
That quotation was on the table when the walls' characteristics decisions were made. Due to the intention of creating an up and running community through the Women's House of Sedhiou, the local women are invited to the participatory construction process to weave the fences of panels that will form the house itself. Using local and familiar material for this purpose enables us to create a cultural value and collective power of women from the very beginning. Besides the short-term functions, the house requires periodic recovery and paves the way to look after the community by ensuring the maintenance of their co-existing place in the long term.