Afghan Women’s Development Centers
Afghanistan

2004 Institutional
size: 1,100 square meters

Designed by Inscape Studio for Relief International and the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs, this design is the prototype of a series of centers being developed to help Afghan women recover from over 25 years of war. The Afghan Women’s Development Center will provide medical services and educational training opportunities for women, enabling them to improve their health and economic welfare. The plan of the center was derived from the necessity for a private compound that would provide both shelter and security to the members of the community it serves. The result is an introspective facility that creates outdoor as well as indoor space though voids and solids and allows a free flow of movement from inside to outside.

The centers are designed to be responsive to the climate in which they are located - mostly arid with daily temperature extremes. The courtyards, designed to allow for prevailing breezes, will help with passive cooling in the heat of the day. Other passive heating and cooling techniques include shaded colonnades, sunscreens, and masonry walls that act as thermal mass. The roof system is designed to divert rainwater through scuppers and into cisterns, reclaiming this precious resource for the center’s use. Locally manufactured indigenous materials such as fire-baked bricks made from the clay soil earth will be used throughout the project. Currently, three facilities have been completed.