ARQUITECTURA
WENDY RODRÍGUEZ
ENFOQUE|
Local
UBICACIÓN|
Baghere Village, Senegal
USOS|
Equipamiento
AÑO DISEÑO|
2021
PALABRAS CLAVE|
Mujeres | Comunidad
Women are a symbol of family union, local culture, and traditional knowledge, yet they have been historically oppressed and at many times underestimated as valuable members of society.
The women's house proposal aims to contribute to the process of women's emancipation and towards gender equality in Baghere by providing a building with both, safe spaces for women, and spaces where they can share knowledge and bring the whole community together. For this we look back at traditional senegalese villages and the significance of their exterior spaces, vernacular construction techniques like rammed earth walls and earthen floors, and the use of local materials as kitenge fabrics, bamboo and other local woods.
The modern architectural solutions that have overshadowed
traditional local Senegalese architecture, tend towards a close
impermeable buildings that are conceived like isolated elements,
completely unrelated to their local climate and context, completely
sealed from the outside. But if we take a look at traditional
Senegalese villages, actually most of the activities occur outside,
houses were not conceived as a single element but as a compound
of little buildings or rooms connected by an open exterior space
and grouped by an exterior light fence that defines the perimeter
of the compound.
Every house was its own tiny village, where the outside
became the main stage for life.
And that is precisely what we were looking for in our proposal. A village-like compound with two enclosed spaces, administrative and dialogue zones, and a semi-open flexible space that will host collective activities. Adding to that collective space, the project also features a series of exterior spaces that include two patios and a tribune. All this is wrapped around by the main circulation, a perimeter earthen floor trail, and a facade that acts like a visual limit but not a barrier from the outside.
In our search for a blended interior and exterior, we used the facade as a diffuse limit of what is inside the women's house and what is outside. Instead of using a typical solid perimetral wall, we rethink the facade by breaking it down into a series of light elements, creating a semi-open limit that implies privacy but still opens up to its surroundings and lets light and air come in. This facade is composed of woven bamboo panels that gradually rotate in accordance with what's going inside the building, opening in the collective zones and patios and closing towards the dialogue and administrative zones, which require more privacy. Parallel to the facade is the perimeter trail that tours around the compound following a smooth circular motion that is always protected from direct sunlight by the facade panels and a canopy made of thin bamboo sticks that float over the pedestrian's head and into the project.
The relation between the textures and colors of the materials used plays a big role in the project's image, the thinking of the architectural form and the material selection were tightly linked processes. The sober color of the bamboo in the facade contrasts and highlights the bright live colors in the interior portrayed by the beautiful traditional kitenge fabrics that were used as curtains that make the collective room a flexible space that can turn into, either a big open plan that connects with the exterior tribune to host big events, or make place for three simultaneous activities in separate rooms. The dialogue and administrative rooms are inside rammed earth elliptical walls that have the earth's red and brown color tones in the valley area. Looking from the outside, you can appreciate how the facade and roof structure's lightness also contrasts with the heaviness of the walls inside.
Over these rammed earth walls rest the roof structure, a wooden 3-dimensional space frame that supports three elliptical roofs of different sizes and inclination which give an image of formal diversity to the project, and at the same time acts as a passive climate control element by letting hot air escape and cool airflow in.
The foundations are made of stone and concrete. The floor in the perimeter circulation trail is made of one concrete beam on each side of it as a boundary for compacted soil inside. The internal spaces require the construction of the floor inside the enclosed areas with bricks layered over the foundation in a concentric pattern. The external floor is made by compacting soil around the stage. Bricks are set on top of the tribune´s soil steps and compacted dirt is used for the riser.
Next in the construction process is building the walls. The trail´s boundary consists of rotated panels shifting from opened to enclosed sections. The panels are made of a wooden frame with a woven bamboo layer within them. The walls enclosing the administrative and dialogue spaces are made of rammed earth. The openings on the walls bring an illuminated atmosphere through the rooms.
As a last step in the constructive process comes to the installation of a prefabricated truss on top of the earth walls supporting the wooden roof. For the trail roof, the project is going to have a structural arrangement of bamboo across the entire trail, giving climate and visual comfort and a connection with its surroundings.
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