BANNED LANDS

AA School of Architecture 2016 :

Intermediate Unit 3

Tutors:

Ricardo de Ostos and Nannette Jackowski

The project is a preposition for communal housing for divorced and widowed women forced out of their lands by the laws of Bangladesh. Six spherical structures rising from the grounds of the capital, placed in the biggest slum of Dhaka become a refugee center attempting to generate its own micro - ecosystem. The overpopulation of the country is directing the exploration of form, stimulating the research for programmatic use of space amid growing threat of climate change and and the rise of sea levels. Land ownership is amongst the most disputed topics raised in Bangladesh. In rural areas of the country an average family of 4 people are assigned a land of 500m2. A divorced or widowed woman inherits 1/4th of the land if she has no children in her custody and even less - 1/8th - if she is with a child. These women in the 21st century become the scavengers for the promised land.