I believe everyone has his/her own faith. A faith itself will be found in anything that happen to go through in everyday life. I found mine through my recent project of my college.
For the past five months, I'd been working on my final studio project. Firstly, I was doing fine but only following the time and what lecturer said - nothing pushed me to do more. But, when I know that students could pick a site to build any function they wanted, I thought it might be great that I chose my site beside Saritem Street. Those who don't know about Saritem, you can see its history here.
You should've been asking me why I have chosen that site, right? Well, let me explain the way my major works on this final studio project. The sites are divided into three groups: city center, urban, and sub-urban. In every group, there is a sub-group, which contains sites in different streets or particular areas. City center focuses more on public - how you build a building without breaking the city landscape and how you make a compact building. Sub-urban focuses more on landscaping - how you create a building without destroying the nature and treat the surroundings well. While urban... is in the middle between city center and sub-urban. My friends said those who got urban site is in the safe field. Students couldn't choose the site they wanted, but they could choose the site in the sub-group. I was chosen in city center and I have four different particular sites in two different streets. Short story, I chose a site beside Saritem Street.
I was thinking about the women who live around Saritem Street. I kept saying to myself that those women have rights to live happily, they can pursue their dreams - without being a prostitute. I was trying to make a place for women to gather and make themselves empower by doing productive and positive things. So, I made a Women Community Center. But through time and a lot of considerations, I changed it into Women's Empowerment Center. Again, you've been wondering why I named that building 'Women's Empowerment Center', right? Right..., guys? Ha ha ha.
Here's the thinking process:
So that was my thinking process of getting a real function of Women Empowerment Center. Through the thinking process, it was the thing that pushed me to do more and more, and to seek about women's emancipation. I'm not talking about strong concept of feminism, I'm talking about humanity that happened to be women who are the topic that I brought to this project.
It was the most unexpected process that I've ever been through. I met a lot of amazing people helping me improving this project. I am grateful for that. Once, I was stuck to search about flow of activity (it's about how far any activities can flow through the building, who are the users of the building, how many times the users use the particular spaces, etc.). Then, I was given a contact person from government (Women's Empowerment Division). I met her and we talked about everything related to women's empowerment and children's protection across the country. It was unbelievable, the person is the old lady who cares about women and children. Her name is Titik Haryati. And from that meeting, I was sure I was no longer confused about flow of activity.
There were a lot of ups and downs moments while I was finishing this final studio project. But luckily, God had good plans for me to keep good family and friends to support me both physically and mentally. I joined some events and an organization that focus on women, one of them was called Fat Velvet, a collective from Bandung. Therefore, I realized that it is important to at least have a strong self-awareness, then awareness about human's issues in today's society - not only about women, but about all mankind.
I ended up finishing this project happily, because I got a lot of life lessons for me, and I hope I can share it with you in this post (even though I might get a little overlap explaining things). I found my faith along this process, and that is I believe in kindness and humanity. Lastly, I dedicate this project for my mom who sees through me as a whole human without a doubt, she believes in me - her family. I also dedicate this for women out there who are still struggling to find lights, to find peace within themselves, and to find the right path of their lives.
All photos were taken by iPhone 6s and edited in VSCO.
The maquette was made by my friends, Filene Krizia (existing site) and Novita Florentina (the Women's Empowerment Center building).
No comments:
Post a Comment