The Femnical Institute: vocational education in transition to a new and evolving economy

Abstract

In the following research report I will be exploring a revised model of a technical vocational education facility where the emphasis is a model focusing on black females. Black females suffer the most social and economic disparity in South Africa, and today their lives are characterised by violence both physically and economically. The South African education system in the past was designed to exclude portions of society, and today black females are still the main victims of this historic disparity. In addition, stereotypes that perceive African women as having week technical capacity persist. This is in stark contrast of the reality that black females have always been technical, and that making was deeply connected to a making of the self, positioning technical education in the traditional context within the paradigm of phenomenologically developing the self as opposed to just educating for the market. Through architectural design, the study engages aspects of education, making and development of the self through the lenses of feminism, phenomenology of making and personal reflections. The result is the design of a technical school for black females located in Soweto Johannesburg, an area that has a deep history of turmoil in the education of black youth in South Africa. The site and design approach in this research report aims to expose a different way of thinking of technical education in response to both the economic, existential and socio/spiritual crisis facing black females in South Africa