Centre for female well being opens in Burkina Faso
Centre pour le Bien-être des Femmes, a women's Health Centre in Burkina Faso was created by AIDOS, an organization fighting for Women's Rights in Developing Countries.
The CBF was Completed in 15 months by a local builder, under the direct supervision of FAREstudio, the CBF is a functional and cost-effective answer to the needs expressed by AIDOS, while simultaneously and primarily representing a centre of aggregation and identity for the entire local community.
The technological and typological responses offered by the project, on par with its social programs, represents an innovative approach to traditional local building practices, presented as the natural formal expression of the changes and new approaches promoted by AIDOS. The project privileges an integrated approach to interactions between built space and climatic-environmental conditions, building orientation and layout, control of resource consumption, the use of natural vegetation, the selection of building technologies, based on considerations of sustainability and appropriateness. The two main buildings are set atop a single structural element: a raised platform that creates a true artificial plane to support the buildings. The raising of the platform above the ground ensures hygienic/climatic conditions that are extraneous to local culture and practices of building - protection against dust, mud and humidity. The two main buildings are protected against rainfall and, above all, direct sunlight, by a lighteight, waterproof PVC recyclable velarium, supported by an independent structure of steel 'trees'. This sloping tarpaulin is part of a system that collects and stores rainwater, which is used to irrigate the garden.
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