“Creating a fair chance for women and babies to live a normal life.”

 

This project addresses the social issues attributed to the radical government policies in China, and explores possibilities of new architectural typologies derived from the resulted social issues.

 

Being home to 33 million more men than women in 2014 due to unequal gender ratio at birth, China possesses the worst gender inequality for the longest period of time in the world. This gender inequality results in the rise of social issues such as baby abandonment, domestic violence, sexual harassment, forced abortion, marriage revolution etc.. This project would act as shelter for these weaker social groups to express themselves for their voices to be heard, ideally provoking an immediate reaction / action to the government policies.

 

The startling gender imbalance in China stems from the internationally renowned One-Child Policy (OCP) implemented in the 70’s. In the OCP, parents are only lawfully allowed to have one child due to overpopulation in China. As such, the OCP advocates selection abortion of female babies due to the preference of the Chinese traditional culture towards male heirs.

 

“China’s unwanted babies once mostly girls, now mostly sick, disabled.” - CNN World

 

Consequently, abandoned babies (mostly females) became increasingly ubiquitous. China reacted by launching pilot drop zones for unwanted infants in 25 major cities in 2015. Unfortunately, most of the schemes are forced to close after being overwhelmed by infants with severe disabilities. Until now, the issue continues to deteriorate without any plausible action taken.

 

Ultimately, this project does not intend to change China’s policies. Conversely, it aims to recontextualise China’s social issues as opportunities for architecture to adapt and manifest itself into new provocative typologies. These typologies would be imagined as equal, free and sensible paradisiacal spaces within a post-traumatic world, creating a fair chance for women and babies to live a normal life.