The idea behind this project was sparked during the semester one design module, where I looked at gender equality, and more specifically female rights. Since then I looked more into how female designers, artists and other professionals are treated in today’s society. During my research, I came upon a collective called “Part W” which is an action group consisting of only women working across architecture and design, infrastructure and construction and campaigning for gender parity across the built environment. Part W campaigns for gender equality and empowering women within design and architectural industry. They support women from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, across generations and with different experiences. As a woman I’ve realised how important it is for all women to fight for equality, especially in disciplines which are dominated by men. That led me to want to celebrate female designers during the Festival of Britain 2022. I’ve created a space where all women can gather to educate themselves and help to improve our rights and fight for gender equality.

My semester one project aims to raise awareness of women’s role in construction, more specifically female masons. The project was to visually present the development of women’s progress in the building trade.

The totem in this project is the reconstruction of an iron column using construction waste as a source to create a new sustainable building material. The whole process of creating this new material happens on site. The end product is an interlocking brick that when build up recreates the site’s iron column that was once part of the West Pier’s structure.