A Luta Continua [The Struggle Continues]
Project for an emergency center/youth asylum for the Ugandan LGBTQ Community, Kampala
“How much more there is now to living!
From now on living here it will be more diverse and interesting.
We can lift ourselves out of the darkness of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!”
“I don’t understand how you manage to love a mob of birds that has just tried to kill you.”
“Oh, Fletch, you don’t love that! You don’t love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practise and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves.
That’s what I mean by love. It’s fun, when you get the knack of it.”
Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
“I want my village...my gay village!”
David Kato Kisule, Ugandan LGBT Rights Activist
In Uganda, a country that denies the most natural of Human Rights, develop a place of protection and hospitality in a hostile situation is not a trivial act.
Starting from the passionate protests of activists for the rights of the ugandan LGBT community, to the cruel homophobic laws, everything speaks about an unceasing fight.
A journey, built in time and space, between desires and hopes, between dreams and tiny victories to be made head held high, step by step, aiming at great goals.
Beyond ignorance of religious extremism, besides the imposition of a culture that is not their own, beyond hatred and fear, there is a united and brave community that does not want to deny their own homeland, even when this last rejects her.
A community that does not give up, a struggle that continues.
On this basis, if on one hand would be natural think of an act of exclusive and constrictive protection induced by fear, on the other hand this would be counterproductive in order of a more far-reaching breakdown of discriminatory barriers.
It is therefore natural follow the fluid and twisted path marked by the LGBT community in the ugandan land.
A path that is a tale, a tale that includes and never excludes, and thus is able to receive and secure.
This project aims to be first of all a "work in progress", a strong and resolute concept, a programmatic action that becomes real volumetry only through the expert hands of the very community towards wich addresses.
This, along with an almost vernacular character, actualizes and connects this act within its native context.
An unconstrained flow turns into wall, the wall turns into space, and the space becomes a cluster of experiences and people, a place free from any discrimination.
A place to strengthen the sense of community through sharing, where break down the ignorance through culture and open dialogue, where it's possible to love and be loved without prejudices, where the variety is a virtue and not a fault.
A place to rediscover the Human Right to simply be themselves.
CONCEPTS
Melting | Meeting
Two spiral spaces, equal and opposite, positive and negative, full and empty, identify the renewed connection between two communities, transcending any false dichotomy.
Hospitality
A wall that is never an harsh bound, a space that compresses and expands itself, naturally encouraging hospitality and sharing, healing people and experiences.
Protection | Care
While modulate itself in height, this sinuous organism provides different degrees of protection for different types of inhabited space, safeguarding, in its most central point, the heart of the LGBTQ community.
Community Proxemics
The spiraling system acts, both conceptually and materially, as a continuous temporal and spatial filter between proxemic distinct areas, variously relating the external community with the internal one, and back.
Cooperation | Participation
As a symbol of love and strength, a sign of action and reaction, the community, by cooperating, can physically build this shelter by itself, using local raw materials and the traditional building methods of the place.
Acceptance Through Time
A glance towards the future, a gesture that expands in space and time, aiming to knock down any gender discrimination, globally guaranteeing the freedom of being oneself in a world without constriction.