Studio: “Factory Futures: Fashion Infrastructure in Ethiopia”

Ethiopia’s fashion and textile industry is undergoing rapid transformation, with emerging brands such as MafiMafi, Paradise Fashion, and Sawa Shoes gaining international recognition while drawing from the country’s rich heritage in textile and leather craftsmanship. This studio responds to that momentum by challenging the conventional typology of the factory—asking how architecture can support and reflect the ambitions of a contemporary Ethiopian fashion brand.

Students are invited to develop a building that combines manufacturing, design offices (including marketing, logistics, and creative direction), and a public visitor centre under one roof. The brief begins with an analysis of spatial relationships within a fashion brand, followed by the formulation of a custom program that reflects the brand’s values, workflows, and aspirations.

Rather than replicating existing factory models, students are expected to invent new spatial arrangements and architectural responses that suit the character of a forward-looking brand. The final project should propose a large-scale urban building for Dire Dawa—both as a local civic landmark and as an international platform for Ethiopian design.

Design studio: “Factory Futures: Fashion Infrastructure in Ethiopia”
Led by Visiting Lecturer Juergen Benson-Strohmayer
Summer Semester 2016

All content by Master of Advanced Architectural Design / Chair of Architecture and Building Science / Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development (EiABC)