Loughborough University School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

摘要

Situated within a dense urban site in Delhi as a reimagined civic centre, the project provides women from the city's Sunlight Colony with a place to live, work, congregate, reflect and express themselves. It offers security and empowerment within an inequitable socio-economic climate, while also purifying the sacred Yamuna River's water using traditional ceramic purification systems. The project challenges an existing patriarchal urban fabric figuratively and architecturally through explorations of femininity. This falls into three categories: the ethereal female as a spiritual lens for the project; female form as a re-inscription of the city; and female anatomy as a delineation of what is female, compared with male. The centre's plan has strong axial lines and radial accessibility. City-facing ceramic workshop facades conform to typical patriarchal architecture but, as the centre moves away from the city, there is greater opportunity for its language to become more expressive. A variety of spatial thresholds are defined by walkways, openings, materiality, green space, water, level changes and shared/private balconies.