Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/1942/36976| Title: | Women’s House of Ouled Merzoug | Contributors/Performers: | Silvertand, John Van Breen, Hannah Goossens, Arnaud Leray, Auranne Lambrechts, Margot Hoftiezer, Eline Beirinckx, Tinne Keymolen, Kjell Fanti, Aurora Van den Velde, Sofie Bosmans, Jolien Petrosino, Martina Ventre, Giulia Haest, Emily Z, Miki Hailu, Biniam Chang, Alice Depuydt, Dany Agoram, Abdelaziz Oualla, Mohamed Arifi, Abdelhadi Sayah, Abdelkbir Darai, Bouchaib Kassimi, Hassiz Sadak Agoram, Abde El Finti, Mehdi El Finti, Allal Kassimi, Abdelkarim El Finti, Abdelwahid Esmali, Rachid women of AFOM KNAPEN, Elke COECKELBERGHS, Nicolas WINKELS, Peggy JANSSENS, Bart VERBEECK, Griet Bekemans, Laurens VERBEECK, Griet JANSSENS, Bart WINKELS, Peggy COECKELBERGHS, Nicolas |
Issue Date: | 2018 | Abstract: | In Ouled Merzoug, a small earthen village near the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, a piece of land was offered by the community to the women’s association AFOM (Association des Femmes d’Ouled Merzoug). Within the postgraduate certificate Building Beyond Borders (UHasselt SEE), a Women's House was designed and built in close collaboration with local women and workers. The end result of this participatory process is a meeting, working, and learning place in the centre of the village. Located on a slope, the Women's Houses consists of two volumes: a workshop space, the ‘atelier des femmes’, and a communal baking house, the ‘boulangerie commune’. In this project, the limits of sustainable building were challenged by maximizing the use of local and regenerative materials and the confrontation between traditional and contemporary building techniques. The project was designed and built by the participants of the postgraduate certificate Building Beyond Borders (edition 2018-2019) and initiated and tutored by the academic team of UHasselt (Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Bart Janssens, Peggy Winkels, Griet Verbeeck and Elke Knapen) and BC Architects & studies. Peer-reviewed articles on the project were published in conference proceedings and several articles on the project appeared in (internationally) renowned architectural magazines. The project won the international TERRAFIBRA Award 2021 for Best Educational Project. | Keywords: | design&build project;project-based learning;educational project;local and regenerative building materials;participatory process;sustainable architecture | Document URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1942/36976 | Link to publication/dataset: | https://sites.google.com/uhasselt.be/building-beyond-borders/platform/postgraduate-certificate/pg-2018-19-programme?authuser=0 https://www.terrafibraaward.com/portfolio-item/la-maison-des-femmes/ |
Discipline: | design en architectuur | Research Context: | The Women’s House of Ouled Merzoug is an educational design & build project of the Postgraduate Certificate Building Beyond Borders (UHasselt SEE), embedded in the Sustainability research team of the research group ArcK (UHasselt), in collaboration with BC Architects & studies. Research contributions are situated on several levels: *Sustainable architecture with local and regenerative building materials Backed by academic insights and theoretical knowledge, participants, academic staff and BC Architects & studies investigated the opportunities of co-creating and building with local materials and craftsmanship in Ouled Merzoug, Morocco, connecting the act of building with the place and its people. By realising a real-life design & build project, new knowledge on sustainable architecture with local and regenerative materials was developed, together with low-tech solutions to improve indoor comfort. The mapping and design & build process were documented in the self-published Newspaper News Beyond Borders ('Mapping for Maison des Femmes d'Ouled Merzoug') and the accompanying Magazine AFOM ('Une histoire de visages'). The publication of the project in many (international) architectural magazines and on several architectural platforms shows the significance of the realisation of the Women’s House of Ouled Merzoug. *Educational project: project-based learning through a real-life design & build project The Postgraduate Certificate is a learn-and-act programme with a knowledge-driven, interdisciplinary and participatory set-up that contributes to the Sustainability Development Goals, and enhances competences in Global Citizenship. Lessons learned and challenges of this educational project are analyzed from both participants' and tutors' perspective in a peer-reviewed conference paper (Janssens, B., Winkels, P., Coeckelberghs, N., Verbeeck, G., & Knapen, E. (2020). ‘Building Beyond Borders’ Project-based learning from, with & for the world. University of A Coruña & Asoc. PLEA 2020 Planning Post Carbon Cities). This analysis and the reflection on project-based learning will be used to further develop the Postgraduate Certificate programme and future design & build projects within the Faculty of Architecture and arts of UHasselt. The project won the internationally renowned TERRAFIBRA Award 2021 for Best Educational Project. *Reflections on intercultural collaboration During the realisation of the real-life design & build project in Morocco, participants learned to design for and build in a context that is beyond their own cultural and social context. Participants got to know different visions on reality, learned to build with local materials and building techniques, … and tried to integrate this in the project in close collaboration with local workers and the end-users. They expanded or changed their role from designer for a specific client to the manager of a building community, coordinator of participatory workshops, developer or producer of building materials,… However, the awareness of and anticipation on the dynamisms of intercultural collaboration in build projects is one of the key success factors when setting up such projects and collaborations. Based on the lessons learned during the realisation of the Women's House, a first Fall Symposium Building Beyond Borders was organized by the Sustainability research team of the research group ArcK to further reflect on the dynamisms of cross-border collaboration in build projects and to set up a broad conversation on this topic, especially in contexts with a risk of imbalance between the different stakeholders. Two peer-reviewed conference papers with reflections on the realisation of the Women's House were presented during the symposium (Hailu, B. (2020). Practice of cross-border 'socially engaged' architecture & development - Women's House of Ouled Merzoug, Morocco; Beirinckx, T., Silvertand, J., Van Breen, H. (2020). Towards an active involvement of the end-user. A critical reflection on the participation process of the Women's House of Ouled Merzoug). In this first Fall Symposium Building Beyond Borders, we managed to bring together 105 participants from 31 countries (both academics and practitioners), showing the importance of and interest in the topic. The peer-reviewed papers during the symposium are published as Book (B1) (Proceedings of 1st Fall Symposium Building Beyond Borders; Reflecting on the dynamisms of intercultural collaboration in build projects, editors: Griet Verbeeck, Peggy Winkels, Elke Knapen, Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Bart Janssens) | Impact Description: | Prizes Winner of the internationally renowned TERRAFIBRA Award 2021 for Best Educational Project (award for contemporary architecture using raw earth and plant fibers). Peer-reviewed conference papers on the project * Janssens, B., Winkels, P., Coeckelberghs, N., Verbeeck, G., & Knapen, E. (2020). ‘Building Beyond Borders’ Project-based learning from, with & for the world. University of A Coruña & Asoc. PLEA 2020 Planning Post Carbon Cities. * Hailu, B. (2020). Practice of cross-border 'socially engaged' architecture & development - Women's House of Ouled Merzoug, Morocco. Proceedings of 1st Fall Symposium Building Beyond Borders, 9 - 10 November 2020, Hasselt, Belgium, p.166-173 * Beirinckx, T., Silvertand, J., Van Breen, H. (2020). Towards an active involvement of the end-user. A critical reflection on the participation process of the Women's House of Ouled Merzoug. Proceedings of 1st Fall Symposium Building Beyond Borders, 9 - 10 November 2020, Hasselt, Belgium, p.128-137 Articles in renowned (international) architectural magazines Articles on the Women's House were published in several renowned (international) architectural magazines and online platforms, such as ArchDaily, Archello, Designboom, Dezeen, Divisare, Green magazine, Dimension, Outsider, Domus, Arch+,... Own publications, documenting the design & build process and the final result Newspaper News Beyond Borders ('Mapping for Maison des Femmes d'Ouled Merzoug') and accompanying Magazine AFOM ('Une histoire de visages') Books *Terrafibra Architectures by Dominique Gauzin-Müller & Aurélie Vissac (2021): analysis of (amongst other projects) the Women's House as the winner of the Terrafibra Award for Best Educational Project *Proceedings of 1st Fall Symposium Building Beyond Borders; Reflecting on the dynamisms of intercultural collaboration in build projects, 2020 (Editors: Griet Verbeeck, Peggy Winkels, Elke Knapen, Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Bart Janssens): originated from the reflections during the realization of the Women's House | Related Info: | Women’s Association of Ouled Merzoug (Association des Femmes d’Ouled Merzoug (AFOM)) Academic team of Building Beyond Borders (Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Bart Janssens, Peggy Winkels, Griet Verbeeck and Elke Knapen) Team of local workers (Abdelaziz Agoram, Mohamed Oualla, Abdelhadi Arifi, Abdelkbir Sayah, Bouchaib Darai, Hassiz Kassimi, Abde Sadak Agoram, Mehdi El Finti, Allal El Finti, Abdelkarim Kassimi, Abdelwahid El Finti, Rachid Esmali and women of AFOM) BC Architects & studies Postgraduate Certificate Building Beyond Borders 2018-2019 (UHasselt SEE) |
Category: | AOR | Type: | Artistic/designerly creation |
| Appears in Collections: | Artistic/designerly creations |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magazine AFOM 'Une histoire de visages' by Building Beyond Borders | 89.9 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open | |
| Newspaper News Beyond Borders ('Mapping for Maison des Femmes d'Ouled Merzoug') | 33.56 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Page view(s)
250
checked on Sep 7, 2022
Download(s)
150
checked on Sep 7, 2022
Google ScholarTM
Check
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.