| In pregnancy a woman has a unique experience of transformation. This metamorphosis is overwhelming in its poignancy as it awakens divisions in the body and mind. The mother experiences her body as her own, yet alien; it becomes also an unwieldy composite of inner and outer spaces. Boundaries expand, achieving a visible presence. Pregnancy in our technologically sophisticated world does not belong to the mother alone. The pregnant body is a site where views extracted from popular culture, the body, and obstetric technologies intersect, layer and collide. The pregnant embodiment, which constitutes many facets, is used as a metaphor of passage to facilitate the structuring of the dialectic process to generate design strategies for a community-based Maternity and Extended Family Health Facility.;Subsequently, in order to grasp the divergent and diverse influences affecting the pregnant embodiment, a series of five theoretical inquiries and several conceptual design processes were developed which eventually culminated in the architectural intervention. Each differs with regard to the methodology and consequent paths of departure but they are all linked by the common theme of the pregnant embodiment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
