
THE WOMB
Day care center
Situated at the core of Kochi which is surrounded by the ocean on all sides, the site has very rich soil allowing plants to be nourished and ensure their wellbeing, making it perfect for establishing a botanical research center. It is not an alien concept of growing different species of plants for the residents of Kochi - farming comes naturally to them as it is one of their primary sources of income including fishing and tourism.

The day care center includes various other smaller projects as part of the design such as a public playground, a farmers’ market and a public library to enhance the neighbourhood. After an in-depth study of the psychology of children by spending an entire day with children and making a note of their daily schedule. I derived various conclusions based on children psychology of spaces and responsiveness to a surrounding, Something that I did not consider studying was the difference that the current education system made in the thought process of the children. I studied this by giving the same task to two different individuals of the same age group but one of them was attending school for over a year (Sara) and the other one was yet to begin her journey (Mariyam). For this exercise I provided them with various colors and a canvas paper big enough to capture their dreams. I observed that Zainab was painting very well defined strokes as if painting in an imaginary box, making sure that she uses the colors in order and only changed colors after one set was complete. On the other hand, Sumaiya was gushing her strokes throughout the page alternating her colors as she liked as if her imagination had no stop without any calculations or hesitation.
Study of canvas painting done the students



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The program for my daycare was not only to take care of the children while their parents are at work, as it is a common problem in nuclear families where both parents have to work, but to ensure that I give back values to all the children and help them grow, and be accepting of the fact that they will not be perfect and that’s okay because perfect is a very deceptive term. My design included spaces that were fluid and multipurpose furniture to suit their imaginations.

The farmers market is designed as an intervention for better job opportunities for the sellers that were selling their goods on the footpath so giving them a designated space to sell generated better income opportunities, and the open library was designed for students living around the site that would have better access to books and encourages social interaction.
“The womb” happened to be the title as the day care was to house newborns as the structure was designed in a womb shape where the earth acted as the mother and the structure surrounding the children was the womb. This project holds a very special place in my heart and each and every activity was given very deep thought and helped me learn a lot of things I could do to give back to society.
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