Yellow Trumpet

Gazi University, Faculty of Architecture, Ankara

Project idea

The project, inspired by local traditions by showing sensitivity to local culture, supports the empowerment of women by bringing them together. It is aimed for women to be in a sustainable structure created using symbolic, ecological and context-appropriate local solutions and materials.

Considering that equality can only be achieved through education and opportunities, the project is based on equality of opportunity, and classes where women can create basic education opportunities and gain knowledge, agricultural areas where they can contribute to their financial freedom and produce agricultural products, and workshops where they can produce traditional products have been planned. While making all these plans, it is tried to give priority to education in order to empower and liberate women.

It is aimed to redesign traditional building techniques while creating modern, functional spaces for daily life. While creating a free-flowing space where women and children can interact, it is also aimed to create a reciprocal life cycle between them and the staff.

When the woman enters the complex, an area that offers emotional, social and psychological support is designed, where she can develop her job and earn a profit by applying it in agricultural classes, workshops and agricultural lands, which she knows a little about.

The traditional circular forms in the project promote equality, ensuring that everyone in the community is a part of it, with the same visibility, the same voice.

It is aimed to create dialogue development areas where there is equality without hierarchy.Since the place where women gather is intended to be the place where information is transferred, it is designed in a way that the courtyard and the masses are in constant dialogue.

Project description

When traditional African architecture is examined, urban clusters that form a predominantly circular pattern draw attention, families live in structures built to surround an open courtyard. Gathering around a circular form or in a circular space is the most common form of gathering in society. The circle form was instinctively seen as a bringing together, inclusive and inviting form. The circle form has the power of infinite evolution, just like a woman's place in social life. The courtyard in the center was created in order to bring women together, to empower them, to provide a collective working space, to make the users feel "free and free" in the space, and to create a place where people can gather and share their daily experiences.
While the masses are distributed in an open land, they are designed in a way to protect the feelings of security, protection and privacy in their own particular. It is aimed to give the feeling of a safe village with the multiplicity of the masses.
A space where women feel safe and protected allows women to connect, create, develop and transform.
The green sanctuary of the inner courtyard plays an important role as a meeting place for residents. It also aims to provide optimum visual connections between women and their children.
The national flower of Nigeria, which can be found all over the country, which is also on the coat of arms, is the Yellow Trumpet. The flower symbolizes beauty, uniqueness and well-being. By transforming this flower into a canopy, the canopy in the courtyard is formed.
While the canopy in the courtyard provides shade in the open area, it also creates a connection with nature and is intended to serve as a landmark in the land. In times of rain, it becomes a funnel that collects rainwater. The rain water flow occurring here is symbolically the water; It emphasizes that it is a fundamental resource for human survival and well-being and draws attention to water scarcity in society. The rainwater stored here is intended to be reused in the surrounding agricultural lands. Intuitively, water is positioned in the center of the courtyard and some space centers, considering water as a healing catalyst.
The roof of the building has been converted into inward sloping roofs so that people can benefit from rainwater harvesting.
The roof holes of the spaces create a connection with nature and light. The lights filtering through the holes in the roofs of the buildings give contemplation, lightness and transparency to the interior.
The project aimed to develop a model for the solution of the problem, effective solutions for the community. During the project process, many trials and revisions were made as researches increased and as we understood the spirit of the place. Since it is important that the project is connected to the ground, after the material and form trial, the modest and simple one was achieved by reducing and subtracting many times.
In the project, it is aimed to heal with nature by creating a therapy garden that supports the therapy center.
The project aims to develop the agriculture that women know and to enable women to get better yields from agriculture. For this, agricultural equipment and plant workshops were created. The learning process is accelerated by quickly applying the knowledge of plants, seeds and fertilizers that women learned in the workshop to agricultural lands. In this process, it is aimed that women learn to modernize agriculture and modern agricultural methods such as row method. It is aimed to gain skills in equipment and textile workshops. It aims to learn the use of agricultural products and diversification of products in the kitchen workshop.
Research was conducted on local architectural and socio-cultural contexts to reveal values appropriate to their context by reinterpreting local traditions and construction methods. The use of locally sourced and renewable materials was given importance throughout the process. It is aimed to reach a project that can become an indicator of the value of environmental management through local production. The project aimed to develop a model for the solution of the problem, effective solutions for the community.
The project also provides a sustainable environment for women, the project aims to be a symbol and example for the whole city by ensuring sustainability and the use of local materials. The project aims to empower women by developing their talents and strengths and promoting their belief in their ability to make a positive change. It aims to set an example for the change that can be achieved through awareness and social transformation. The project is intended to set an example for local architecture. The project aims to be a prototype exemplary project from which reproducible examples can be taken by reviving assimilated local architecture.

Technical information

The choice of materials and technologies is to demonstrate that traditional materials and techniques are in line with the principles of sustainability and self-construction. It is intended to encourage the use of conservative techniques and materials. The materials used in the construction of the project are molded bricks obtained from red laterite soils. The use of materials that are local products of the region will reduce the use of more expensive materials.
It is aimed to integrate with the socio-cultural context of the region by reinterpreting and respecting the traditional by being easily built with sustainable technologies that can be adapted to its own construction and do not require the use of heavy vehicles or complex machinery. In order to generate income in the local context, it is recommended to include women in the construction process and create a new way of earning for women.