Abstract:

The contribution of the Laboratory Prototypes of the Politecnico di Milano is part of the much broader initiative promoted humanitarian organization Build Our Nation, for the design of a village in support of socially marginalized women in Congo.
The project involved students from four Schools of Engineering and Architecture from three different countries (Scotland, Spain, Italy) and the results have been demonstrated in an intensive workshop held at the Venice Biennale 3 to 14 September 2012.
Here were exposed used physical models of the project, developed at the Laboratory Prototypes, on a regional scale and detail as a means of communication facilitated innovative content of the project.
The main aim of creating a settlement for the complete autonomy of the inhabitants, from the standpoint of both environmental and production, has been developed with two solutions between their integrated, in which the physical model is found to be particularly useful: the direct construction by women taking up their duties, using construction products popular in the area and essentially based on different processes of bamboo, the creation of jobs for women in the same territory by developing the entire production cycle, from cultivation to the construction of buildings.
The innovative use of bamboo and in particular node assembly for the construction of the buildings have been well illustrated in the workshop of the Biennale through three physical models which will be detailed here.