The women of Imloul are a very engaged and skillful community, dedicated to the management of the house and the family. They have organised an association with the goals of financial independence and strengthening of their community. Their president, Meryem, returned to Imloul after receiving her education and has committed herself to helping her community in all ways. 

In 2019, the community started to build a women’s house for the association where the women could bake and sell bread and other products, manufacture carpets following traditional techniques, and store locally-sourced honey. However, after building the bearing walls with the rammed earth technique, the work stopped due to lack of money. 
This is why, together with the local community, we are seeking funding to complete this project.

We met with the association members to discuss which activities to include in the building design and how to optimize the layout using natural locally-sourced sustainable materials. 

Given these conversations and goals, we have designed with the women a building which contains a room where children can play while their mothers are working, a communal kitchen with a store front to the street to allow for selling of baked goods, a workshop area with storage for the production of carpets, a communal room for association-related meetings and an office space.

Over 50 village women will be the direct beneficiaries of this project, as it will provide them space to support their association activities. Their children and families will also benefit from improved income-generating activities (and subsequent impacts of the increased income) of the women.
In addition, local builders and artisans will be provided employment and expand their building skills given our collaboration with Studio 2111, an Italian practice founded by the architect Fabrizio Carola, that focuses on the design of curved surfaces such as domes.
Following a discussion with the community about recurrent droughts and the village's water management, we have expanded the project to include a soil regeneration program to tackle the ongoing desertification. Hence, the larger community of Imloul will benefit from the increased revenue generation, improved environmental conditions and overall increased community well-being.

At terre à terre asbl we are an international group of down to earth designers, focussing on creating new opportunities for communities through participatory design and promoting the use of natural materials and traditional building techniques with a contemporary approach.
During a collaborative project of the Women’s House of Ouled Merzoug (BBB programme) we had the opportunity to meet the women of the Association féminine du dawar Imloul. They showed us the walls of what should have become a women’s centre, which was never completed due to lack of money. We agreed to look for funds in order to help them achieve their goal.
The director of our partner Perma Atlas - Latifa, who speaks Amazigh, was very helpful in overcoming language barriers and bridging cultural differences. The women explained to us which activities the building should accommodate and, since the project would have been organised in phases, which rooms to prioritise.
Our partner Studio2111, an Italian practice founded by the architect Fabrizio Carola, that focuses on the design of curved surfaces & organic shapes, proposed a structure made of arches and domes in order to speed up the construction and be cost effective, avoiding the use of expensive timber beams.
The local builders, organised in the Association of Naktachef, were keen on working with the domes as it was an opportunity to gain new technical skills.
With the great support of the Municipality of Schaerbeek (Brussels, Belgium), constantly engaged in cooperation, and thanks to friends' donations, we were able to finance over 50% of the budget!