Winnohub
Location:
Niger Province, Nigeria
Description:
WinnoHub is a pilot project for a series of Woman's Business Incubators that are planned for over 30 locations throughout Nigeria. The site selected for the first project is located near Minna in the Niger Province of Nigeria.
The Architecture of the WinnoHub facilitates four primary activities; Resource, Production, Wellness and Connection. The parts are composed along outdoor rooms - the ‘Street’ and the ‘Market Square’ - with the aim of increasing the frequency and diversity of interaction between the female entrepreneurs and the environment in which the building is situated. This connection between women from various disciplines, the public and other professionals, encourages a synergy of shared ideas, values and innovation that the architecture aims to celebrate.
By elevating the private functions onto a first floor level, the ground floor becomes an extension of the landscape, gaining the flexibility and openness of a market square in which various events, conferences and informal meetings can take place in a variety of indoor and outdoor rooms. The more defined and formal activities are proposed on a private first floor level with views of the site’s agricultural and ecological activities and the landscape beyond. The Production activities are situated on the ground floor to ensure their accessibility, practicality and flexibility.
An elevated structure assists in the passive ventilation of a building by capturing and increasing the velocity of breezes as well as providing shaded outdoor space.
Whilst the Architecture aims to be contemporary and offer 21st century amenities, it is a sensitive engagement with the particularities of the context, site, climactic conditions, vernacular tradition and local skills and resources that will ultimately give form and identity to the building.
