Women’s Tec Part 1 Project 2023 Danielle Hynd Ulster University | UK ‘Women’s Tec’ designs a context for educating women in STEM who have experienced trauma. It forms part of an imagined Urban Village which includes three adaptive reuse projects and two new developments on a brownfield site in North Belfast. Designed with a commons-based approach, the masterplan seeks to restitch and enliven the urban street edges, create more connected green space within the city and equitable shared space for all citizens.Through the principals of trauma informed design and based on programmatic research the brief for ‘Women’s Tec’ facilitates the education and support for women to develop and enhance vocational skills, knowledge and confidence to nurture independence and increase potential for employment. The architecture seeks to reduce adverse stimuli and environmental stresses, through its geometric design, visual permeability and light infused spaces of varying scales. The spaces within are designed to encourage social interaction whilst promoting safety, wellbeing and healing for vulnerable users.The building form is sensitive to its context and explores spaces which take best advantage of natural light conditions, orientation and scale to ensure environmental and material efficiency. At an urban level the building immerses itself in the community life of the place and provides visual urban termini. Tutor(s) Aoife McGee