1st Edition

Feminist Practices Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture

Edited By Lori A. Brown Copyright 2011
400 Pages
by Routledge

400 Pages
by Routledge

400 Pages
by Routledge

Women continue to be extremely under-represented in the architectural profession. Despite equal numbers of male and female students entering architectural studies, there is at least 17-25% attrition of female students and not all remaining become practicing architects. In both the academic and the professional fields of architecture, positions of power and authority are almost entirely male, and... Read more
List of Figures, Notes on Contributors, Preface, 1. Introduction, 2. Critical Spatial Practices: Setting Out a Feminist Approach to some Modes and what Matters in Architecture, 3. Inventing Feminist Practices: Women and Building in Fin-de-Siècle Berlin, PART I: FEMINIST PRACTICES IN DESIGN, 4. Breathing Spaces: Whispering Walls, Feminist Spatial Practice, 5. Blazing Inter Alia: Tropes of a Feminist Creative Practice, 6. Sister2, 7. Interior-scapes, 8. Materializing the Tiger in the Archive: Creative Research and Architectural History, PART II: FEMINIST PRACTICES IN PEDAGOGY, 9. The Pedagogy and Practice of “Placing Space: Architecture, Action, Dimension”, 10. Axis Mundi Brazil Studio, 11. Fishing for Ghosts, PART III: FEMINIST PRACTICES IN DESIGN RESEARCH, 12. Gender Roles at the Intersection of Public and Private Spheres: Transformation from Detached House to Apartment in Izmir, Turkey, 13. Courtyards, 14. Politicizing the Female Body, 15. Home Grown, PART IV: FEMINIST PRACTICES IN COMMUNITIES, 16. Urban Threads, 17. Preparations for the Afterlife: Barking Town Square muf architecture/art, 18. La Marqueta Mile: East Harlem, New York, 19. Conclusion, Index

Biography

Lori A. Brown, Associate Professor, School of Architecture , Syracuse University, USA

'The essays in Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture illuminate the variety of contemporary design and critical responses inspired by feminism(s) and acknowledge the spatial component of all social relationships. This way, the very definition of architecture is enriched and expanded beyond the question of professional advancement for women in the design disciplines.' Susana Torre, architect and editor/curator of Women in American Architecture. A Historic and Contemporary Perspective 'Feminist Practices provides a welcome relief to the hegemony in architectural discourse. From personal investigations of the body in space, to explorations of the social, political, cultural context of design, this provocative book reveals the benefits of feminist analyses to both understand and guide the design of the built environment. Power dynamics in architectural practice, theory and criticism are revealed. Serious and carefully researched, diverse and ever-changing models are proposed in lieu of absolute assertions. And evocative exhibit installations and research projects give voice to the underrepresented and disempowered, whether by gender, class and/or race.' Roberta M. Feldman, co-author with Susan Stall of The Dignity of Resistance: Women Residents' Activism in Chicago Public Housing, and Founding Director of the University of Illinois' City Design Center, USA. 'Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture explores what it means to employ feminism in design, but can the exposed design methods really be considered radical? Improvised, not-for-profit, tactical, self-reflexive, playful, ephemeral, collaborative, non-Cartesian, instinctive, interdisciplinary, embodied: just a few of the terms describing Feminist Practices excerpted from the collection of articles that make up Lori A Brown’s edited volume of the same title.' The Architectural Review