The Women’s Empowerment Institute

Women’s empowerment ― which includes action to raise the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, and training ― was the principal objective of the client when NDDC was asked to design an Electronic Vocational Institute for women. This would be a place where trainee women would stay, study, and eventually become self-supporting either by being employed at the client’s own electronics company or by venturing out on their own.

The project is located at village Khed-Shivapur, near Pune, and NDDC was asked to use a basic material template. The site, being rectangular and fairly flat topography-wise, was amenable to a rigid yet highly functional layout, as required by the client. It consists of a multi-stored building block ad-measuring approximately 19,000 square feet, divided in accordance with the occupants’ requirements. Thus, the ground floor would house public areas such as dining halls, residential quarters for the staff, and an administrative office. The first floor would be devoted to academic activities in the form of classrooms and laboratories, etc, while the floors from the second to the fourth would be for residential purpose.

In keeping with all NDDC projects, due emphasis was laid on solar power in order to uphold the “green cause” as also to reduce the carbon footprint. Taking into consideration the local climate and the ecological impact of such a large building block, the design sought to make sure that the landscape played an important role in this. Therefore, saplings and shrubbery were planted on all the levels of the site. Furthermore, the use of external brick cladding on the walls and brick jali's wherever possible not only offered a protective layer but also ensured a cool and comfortable interior.

Multiple stepped terraces are a noteworthy aspect of this site. These terraces not only serve as semi-public places for social interaction among the occupants, but also create an interesting mass for the casual looker-on in what would otherwise have been just another institutional building.

Equally worthy of note as a design element is the staircase on the lower level wherein its spine also acts as structural support to the roof.

The shape and orientation of the building are such as to maximize solar heat gain during the winter months and natural ventilation during the summer months.