Feminist approach in Architecture

Feminist approach to critical spatial practice by Jane Rendell

Seventh week (Friday, 8 November, 2024)

 

One of the first architects who brought up feminist debate in architecture was Jennifer Bloomer. Merging her drawings of female anatomy into architecture, she illustrated that the feminine can be a crucial part of architectural design.

Discussions related to the correlation between gender and space emerged in 1990s.

Feminist work from the 1990s by Bloomer and others mentions a gendered analysis of architecture, different forms of architectural representations in a space, and creating a space which challenges sexism and providing more equitably in spaces.

Rendell describes the notion of practice in spatial practice and practice-led research as a process which happens not only through the design of buildings but also through the activities of using, occupying, and experiencing them, and through the various modes of writing and imagining used to describe, analyze, and interrogate space.

Also, she points to definition of spatial practices from Michel de Certean and Henri LeFebvre point of views. Certean uses two terms of strategy and tactic to discuss spatial practices, strategies aim to create places that follow the abstract regulations, whereas tactics do not conform to the laws of spaces.

On the other hand, from LeFebvre’s point of view space is produced through three inter-related modes, which are spatial practices, representations of space, and spaces of representation. He argues that spatial practices can be felt through perception, and representations of space through conception.

Also, he considers representations of space as a series of imposed regulations, but spaces of representations as resistant spaces requiring creativity.

‘Critical spatial practice’ is a term which Rendell names tactics of Certeau. ‘Critical spatial practice’ means daily practice and creative measures which are used to resist against imposed social laws.

Five qualities which describe a feminist approach to critical spatial practice, from Jane Rendell point of view, include collectivity, subjectivity, alterity, performativity, and materiality.