Coir Craft Centre, Odisha
Real Time Trust Workshop for women artisans
Client: Real Time Trust
Location: Sri Ramchandrapur village, near Sakhigopal Temple, Puri District, Odisha
Area: 1500 sq. ft
Status: Built

An existing residential building repurposed into a craft workshop which employs and empowers rural women in a village called ‘SriRamchandpur’, near Sakhigopal, in the state of Odisha, India. The regressive traditional and religious beliefs leading to bias on the basis of gender and caste has taken a strong hold within such rural society for generations after generations. This led to an important quest on how architecture can respond to these issues and bring about a positive change.

How can a space be designed which radiates warmth and imbibes a spirit to make the women workers feel empowered?
A place where they strongly feel a sense of belonging, which becomes there second home.

The built-up is divided into two blocks by a patio in between. One of the blocks is two-storeyed and faces the road (towards the south) while the other is a ground floor structure with a beautiful garden on its rear side (facing north). Currently there are about 30 women workers who come to craft products out of coconut coir and silk and cotton threads etc. They prefer to sit down on floor to work. The craft work is designed and trained by Cristian Reymond, who co-founded Real Time Society trust, Zurich, Switzerland. We also realized to design something which doesn’t look alien and fancy to the locals but would be humble, relatable and user friendly while still being progressive in nature. The construction and execution method also considered local participation and aimed at introducing a technique which contributes to the skill set of the local masons and labourers. We decided to employ bamboo for structural and roofing systems, sourced it from district in North Odisha called Mayurbhanj. The space is designed where people can interact, learn and store their materials. Special spaces are assigned as resting space for kids who accompany their mother’s at times. No artificial lighting in the day times is required to carry their work forward.