2025

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Browsing 2025 by Author "Laiba Gull"

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    “ibtida” Women empowerment center
    (UMT.Lahore, 2025) Laiba Gull
    As Rahim Yar Khan, which is located in southern Punjab, grows urban faster than anticipated, there is a significant shortfall of dedicated open, inclusive, and free standing spaces for women. Most of the existing building fabric does not facilitate women's diverse needs along with skill building, wellness, networking, and personal development. The Women Empowerment Center isa proposed conceptual design to help fill the void of women specific programs and activities that bring women together in a safe, productive, and culturally appropriate space. The Women Empowerment Center will be a multi-purpose holistic space for all types of women - homemakers, students, entrepreneurs, and professionals alike. The Center plans to be located nearer to the city's educational and economic center. The design and architecture of the Center aims to be unpretentious and welcoming. The architecture and spatial configuration embodies inclusive, flexible, and empowerment principles. The Center aims to combine elements of royal patronage in architecture with contemporary classical design conventions, thus dignified and elegant, yet very practically organized into functions. The Women Empowerment Center will combine five themed zones under one roof, each will have distinctive yet coordinated function including women's intellectual, physical, and social development. The skills training zone is a major part of the center and features modular studios for experiential learning in various areas such as digital literacy, cooking, tailoring, and handicrafts. The studios will include furniture which can be arranged in varying configurations, smart lighting, and will have a flexible layout that will allow for variability in teaching type and group size, and create opportunities to further develop entrepreneurial skills, for example, collaborative work with participants, increasing confidence. The wellness wing of the center is another important aspect of the project. The site allows the opportunity to promote both physical and mental well-being and includes: yoga and group exercise studios, a meditation garden to practice mindfulness, and change facilities for participants before and after classes. The wellness zone will allow the participants to have a calming restorative place, where they will have the time to pursue activities for self-care oralleviate daily stress, things that many women often overlook in their daily lives. The project intends to achieve more than just propose a building. It is about providing a safe, empowering and inspirational environment for them to feel confident to be the best version of themselves. The experiences gained while trying to consider functionality, structural culture, richness and depth in design hopefully influences a prototype for community based noninstitutional if female support spaces in Rahim Yar Khan or potentially other urban centers in Pakistan.