Flexibility

The design for the women’s house building has inbuilt flexibility. The design focusses on a system of construction and structure, how the spaces are arranged within the building can be rearranged and manipulated during community engagement and design phases. The structural system relies on an even grid of columns, the number and length of the grid can be adjusted as needed. The building can even be built as a small section first then extended and grown as need be by the community. The location of the walls and the nature of the walls whether they be solid or breeze blocks is completely flexible within the grid structure. There are certain design intentions that were made and would be encouraged to keep such as locating the building to open up north to have wide visible connection with the agricultural garden. By having the roof angled to fall towards the south not only makes the entire roof ideal for solar PV panels but also optimises the length of the shadow cast by the building to cover much of the courtyard beyond the covered area.