Dipdii Textiles
More than 4 million people, women in particular, make a living from the fabrication of textiles in Bangladesh. One of the objectives of the garment sector is to produce a standardised T-shirt cheaply under safe working conditions. What is not considered is the wonderful and unique textile culture in Bangladesh, nor that technological developments will, in all probability, replace some manual labour soon.
Dipdii Textiles was initiated by Anna Heringer as architect and Veronika Lena Lang as master tailor, and was created in cooperation with the Bangladeshi non- government organisation Dipshikha. It is a company that relies on local textile traditions. Production is decentralised in the villages of Bangladesh where the quality of life and space is both humane and free. Instead of merely consuming resources, the manufacturing process is grafted with time, skills and creativity.
This project is a Bangladeshi-German cooperation between crafts(wo)men and designers, together with a Bangladeshi NGO for village development. It proves the possibility of an alternative “made-in-Bangladesh” production: participative, sustainable, decentralised, and based on local textile traditions. Every piece is unique and serves the purpose of improving the quality of life.
1 Women making a living from the fabrication of textiles
Photo by Kurt Hoerbst
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Anandaloy: Centre for People With Disabilities +
Dipdii Textiles Studio RUDRAPUR, BANGLADESH
The Anandaloy building hosts a centre for people with disabilities. Disabilities in Bangladesh are often seen as a kind of punishment from God or bad karma from a former life. And because poverty forces most adults in families to work, people with disabilities are left on their own during the day. Places for therapy are therefore rare in the country; none exists in the rural area of Rudrapur where the project is located.
Initially the building was planned as a therapy centre; later, the designers extended its programme to include another component: a studio for the female tailors in the village.
The architecture of Anandaloy explores the plasticity of mud to create a stronger identity. Mud is regarded as a poor and old-fashioned material, and deemed inferior to brick, for example. To show the beauty and capacity of mud, the designers at Studio Anna Heringer felt it was important to bring out the best of the material. With a mud technique called cob, no formwork was used and curves could be made as easily as straight walls. Unlike other buildings in that area that are erected in a rectangular layout, the Anandaloy building breaks the mould. It is shaped as a series of curves, where a ramp winds playfully around its inner structure. At a symbolic level, the building signals that human beings are different and that diversity is wonderful.
2 With a mud technique called cob, the architecture is shaped as a series of curves to signal the diversity of humans
92 FUTURARC
Photo by Kurt Hoerbst
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