Arcam’s Architect in Residence Afaina de Jong will explore the subject of feminism in architecture and female architects in the coming months. Join her quest by joining her checking this list of 10 must-reads on feminism in architecture, curated by Afaina de Jong herself.
1 – Feminist City by Leslie Kern
Feminist Cityis an ongoing experiment in living differently, living better, and living more justly in an urban world. In Feminist City, through history, personal experience and popular culture Leslie Kern exposes what is hidden in plain sight: the social inequalities built into our cities, homes, and neighborhoods. Kern offers an alternative vision of the feminist city.
2 – Calling all architectural feminist killjoys! Ahmed for architecture students.
Edited by Brady Burroughs, Published by Gullppress.
3 – Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place by Nirmal Puwar
Increasingly, women and minorities are entering fields where white male power is firmly entrenched. The spaces they come to occupy are not empty or neutral, but are imbued with history and meaning. This groundbreaking book interrogates the pernicious, subtle but nonetheless widely held view that certain bodies are naturally entitled to certain spaces, while others are not.
Shop: Scheltema webshop >
4 – Printed edition MEVR. THE ARCHITECT by Merel Pit
In this printed edition, online architecture platform A-Zine goes beyond giving a stage to female architects. By filtering, sharpening and bundling all 19 interviews that appeared online, a compelling overview of inspiring role models is created. These are honest, vulnerable interviews in which the architects indicate what they encounter in their practice, what they aspire to and how they shape their professional careers. This creates a powerful ensemble which is reinforced by the unique portrait photography by Alice Lucchinelli.
5 – Architectural Flirtations. A Love Storey by Brady Burroughs
In a move toward a more vulnerable, ethical and empowering culture of architecture, the project aims to displace the culture of critique, by questioning and undermining relationships of power and privilege through practices that are explicitly critical, queer feminist, and Campy. In other words, it takes seriously, in an uncertain, improper and playful way, what is usually deemed unserious within the architectural discipline, in order to undermine the usual order of things.
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6 – Building Critique, Architecture and its Discontents – various authors
Criticism has fallen into crisis, and today’s critical practice mistrusts its own tools – a development that also applies to critique in architecture. For a major part of the twentieth century, critique played an important part in what was considered “modern” architecture. The canon of modern architecture considered itself dedicated to both progress and social critique. As an antithesis to this, the 1960s introduced a rereading of modern architecture from the perspective of new social movements and Marxism, concluding that a building practice cannot be critical, owing to its interdependent relationship with power and business.
Shop: Architectura & Natura >
7 – Gender, Space, Architecture by Jane Rendell
This significant reader brings together for the first time the most important essays concerning the intersecting subjects of gender, space and architecture. Carefully structured and with numerous introductory essays, it guides the reader through theoretical and multi-disciplinary texts to direct considerations of gender in relation to particular architectural sites, projects and ideas. This collection marks a seminal point in gender and architecture, both summarizing core debates and pointing toward new directions and discussions for the future.
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8 – Feminist Futures of Spatial Practice. Materialisms, Activisms, Dialogues, Pedagogies, Projections – Editors: Ramia Mazé, Meike Schalk, Thérèse Kristiansson
Architecture and the arts have long been on the forefront of socio-spatial struggles, in which equality, access, representation and expression are at stake in our cities, communities and everyday lives. Feminist spatial practices contribute substantially to new forms of activism, expanding dialogues, engaging materialisms, transforming pedagogies, and projecting alternatives. Feminist Futures of Spatial Practice traces practical tools and theoretical dimensions, as well as temporalities, emergence, histories, events, durations – and futures – of feminist practices.
Shop: Atheneum webshop >
9 – Black Vernacular: Architecture as Cultural Practice by bell hooks
bell hooks is an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. The focus of hooks’ writing has been the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender.
Via Google Books >
10 – The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle The Masters House by Audrey Lorde
Lorde’s most famous essay, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” is included in Sister Outsider. Lorde questions the scope and ability for change to be instigated when examining problems through a racist, patriarchal lens. She insists that women see differences between other women not as something to be tolerated, but something that is necessary to generate power and to actively “be” in the world. This will create a community that embraces differences, which will ultimately lead to liberation.
Shop: Bol.com >