HOLDING GROUND / Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2008–2010 / ongoing

The site was never neutral. It carries the weight of gendered histories, infrastructural fragility, and ecological neglect. Holding Ground was conceived not as a monument but as a threshold: a porous structure that holds space for collective presence, protection, and slow repair.

Although the building was completed in 2010, its material and political life continues to unfold. The project remains an active reference within a broader research on metabolic infrastructures, gendered ecologies, and architectures of care. It lives through the rhythms of inhabitation, maintenance, and resistance.

The women’s health center of Voix de Femmes emerges in a context where the body is the first contested territory. Here, architecture does not fix or redeem. It listens. It leans into uneven ground. It holds against heat, silence, violence, and erasure.

This work anchors an ongoing trajectory that reads territories as living bodies and infrastructures as metabolic systems. Its minimal architecture speaks of endurance rather than spectacle. It keeps the ground open, allowing gestures of care and resistance to unfold within it.

Credits

  • Project Architect: Riccardo Vannucci
  • Project Team: Giuseppina Forte, João Sobral, Erika Trabucco, Emanuela Valle
  • Client: AIDOS (Associazione Italiana Donne per lo Sviluppo)
  • Local NGO: Voix des Femmes

Awards

  • Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Finalist (2010)
  • Zumtobel Award for Humanity in the Built Environment, Special mention (2010)
  • Barbara Cappochin International Biennale Architecture Prize, Honorable Mention (2009)
  • International Architecture Awards, Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, European Center for Architecture and Urban Studies, Winner (2009)
  • World Architecture Festival, Winner – Health Category (2008)

Selected Bibliography

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  • Brooks, E. “Time to heal, an injection of design could be the stimulus Africa needs to improve its health condition.” World Health Design, 2 (2009): 34-35
  • Ciavoni, C. “In Burkina Faso un Centro italiano per le donne.” Il Venerdì di Repubblica (2008): 26. 
  • Chionne, R., Chiorino, C., Milan, L. “Comunicare l’architettura.” Specchio, Il Mensile de La Stampa, 573 (2008): 130-137. 
  • FARE. “Women’s health centre in Burkina Faso.” Space, 501 (2009): 110-115.
  • FARE. “FARE, Centro de Bem-Estar para Mulheres CBF, Ouagadougou.” arq|a (arquitectura e arte), 69 (2009): 44-49. 
  • FARE. “Une architecture integrée en Afrique.” Vies de Villes (Architecture, Urbanisme et Societé), 11 (2009): 42-45. FARE. “Al centro donne e ambiente In Burkina Faso.” L’Arca, 242 (2008): 98. 
  • FARE. “African women’s health centre.” Architectural Creativity, 4 (2008): 76-78. 
  • Griginis, A. – Guglielmino, D. -“Festival dell’architettura. Quaranta idee per progettare sostenibile: la testimonianza italiana a Londra.” Modulo, 346 (2008): 1153-1157. 
  • Minervini, C. “In the country of the ‘barefoot’ architects.” Il Giornale dell’Architettura, UIA 2008 special daily edition (1st of July 2008): 11. 
  • Prestinenza Puglisi, L. “Burkina Faso, la mission di FARE: «Qualità con budget al minimo».” Edilizia e Territorio – Progetti e Concorsi, 6 (2008): 5. 
  • Ramanathan, R. -“Send the WAF.” HINGE magazine, 163 (2009): 71.
  • Sliwka, R. -“The gathering place.” Azure (2008): 48. 
  • Tombesi, P. -“Far di necessità virtù.” Il Giornale dell’Architettura, 62 (2008): 28. 
  • Trabucco, E. “Sense of belonging.” World Health Design, 2 (2009): 42-43. 
  • Zobaran, S. “Pelo Bem.” Casa Vogue, 288 (2009): 2-3.