Casa delle Donne Castelfranco Veneto

Almost 70-80 years have passed since the end of the Fascist era in Italy, where women were seen as mothers of the nation and given a role to raise the men who were sent to fight for their country. Despite the time that has passed, the remains of these social, economic, and political associations with the image of women still shapes the systems that run this country.

Casa delle Donne Castelfranco Veneto looks at the empowerment of women through a series of inter-dependent interventions to celebrate women’s history through the unheard voice of the women writers who emerged in the city and in the country. The institution interlinks different inequalities through mutual constitution (Walby, 2012). The first semester looks at Castelfranco Veneto through the concept of a learning process guiding one on an educational journey. The second semester investigates the potential professional opportunities that the institution can provide to empower women and girls through social enabling platforms (Manzini, 2003).

Casa delle Donne, an existing scheme in Italy, has spread across the country with over 20 of them running to bring women together into protective systems. Focusing on equal professional, political, and social opportunities, each institution has been determined on creating a platform for women to ask for help. This project builds upon the achievements of this institution and asks the city, Castelfranco Veneto to invite new images to welcome the new image of women.

Castelfranco Veneto is seen through the layers of history defining the image of the city. These visual boundaries are apprehended as not only causing dysconnectivity; however, bringing lack of possible accessibility. The positive boundaries are going to be seen as starting points to investigate the potential connections to the negative ones. This allowed to draw a strategic plan of the series of interventions, in which an archive and a monument allows for education and raising awareness and the Wall becomes a transition in-between the two to form a memory (Rossi, 1982). 

Responding to the fragmented parts of the city, the fold, a theory introduced by Peter Eisenman (2004) in architecture is researched to see its potential to frame new images of the city to become the new image of women. The folding has been defined as a continuous form that expanded the two-dimensional boundary to a three-dimensional (Powell, 2004, p.26). The folding is investigated through the concept of permeability and transparency. The first to respond to the physical accessibility of the city and educational journey of the scheme investigating the fold as a cavern (Stiernfelt, 2004, p.53) and as an affective machine (Paek, 2018). The second looking at visual connectivity and monumentality looking at the fold as an event (Carpo, 2004), and as a threshold (Powell, 2004, p.26).

The first semester examines the Boating Centre which is part of the reflective journey of the learning process (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Interactive Design Architects, 2021). This is to understand how the fold can compose a series of frames to project new interpretations on the image of women. The second semester looks at the Museum to research how the circular economy of women workers links to the learning journey of the visitors. 

To uncover the potential of the fold to give opportunities for women to take on leading positions. To provide platforms for conversations between the makers and the visitors. To bring attention to the unheard voices of the women writers. 

After all, to allow for a new image of women to be made through each step one takes.