Jajja's House
location: kikkajo, uganda
status: built in January 2020
Jajja's house is an emancipatory project of self-built housing for rural women. From initial drawings to construction, the project understands the building process as an exchange of knowledge, approaching design as a holistic action capable of questioning the conventional production chain. The project was designed in the rural village of Kikajjo, Uganda, with
direct participation of local women, and draws from local resources and heritage. The building process involves construction workshops for women, supporting their autonomy and defying gender roles. The core aim is for Jajja's house to serve as a prototype that can be adapted and replicated in other situations, and the first step to reach that will be building a house for 4 women, extending the project to a community enviroment.
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Empowering women as the key for climate change.
The daily routine of women in rural areas incorporatesactivities which mitigate the effects of global warming, but these women are also the most affected during natural disasters caused by climate change. Furthermore, household activities have always been delegated to the women, but their domestic environment is planned and built by men. What if we took in consideration those routines to build more sustainable spaces? What if women were protagonists in the creation of their own homes? From initial drawings, the project is developed in close collaboration with the future users as an opportunity for knowledge exchange. The construction process is realized through construction workshops for local women, promoting technical training as a tool of empowerment towards their autonomy.
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People and nature: Sustainability throughout the building process.
Both labour and materials are seen not just as resources, but as active agents in a cyclic development, addressing the idea of sustainability not only in terms of the final project but also the construction process. Beyond providing support to the families of women who will take part in the construction workshops, the building process aims to enable these women to enter the job market while providing them with a community setting a collective response to individual needs,economizing on material resources and sharing common responsibilities. Even though it draws heavily from local materials, local culture and responds directly to the environment of Kikajjo, the intention is to serve as a replicable prototype as its modular.
Building the bridge between academia, community and
real world.
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What if architecture students, in collaboration with professionals, could think of viable solutions to address real problems and demands? This project began as a graduation project developed in response to a demand from real clients, with the challenge and responsibility of feasibility. As well as using private and long-term capital to develop an educational design process with a slower pace, academia must connect with local knowledge in order to jointly generate coherent solutions for the future. This project proposes that academia surpasses the theoretical and speculative limits and puts ideas into practice, training future professionals to work with the communities of the world and make collective decisions for sustainable development.
CO2 Lifecycle Assessment
The emissions of CO2 are reduced during the design,
construction and maintenance phases. The design of the project is developed through exchange of local knowledge and observation of the functions of the landscape. As both workforce and materials are based on the community, there are minimum transport needs. The debris of one construction process becomes the building material for the next, creating a cyclic recycling of building materials. The final structure utilises passive ventilation, collects rainwater and is built with a simplicity that allows local maintenance, ensuring longevity.
Potential materials, building techniques and solutions to
problems that arise in all phases are decided with the local community, combined with global design knowledge on sustainable construction.
