Feminist theory as it relates to architecture has forged the way for the rediscovery of such female architects as Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Marion Mahoney Griffin, Lilly Reich, Jane Drew, Lina Bo Bardi, Anne Tyng, Norma Merrick Sklarek, Denise Scott Brown, among many others. These women imagined an architecture that challenged the status quo, and paved the way for future women designers and architects.[1]
Women's entry into architecture edit
In July 1872, Julia Ward Howe, a champion of women's rights, delivered a lecture to the Victorian Discussion Society in London, focusing on women artists. She pondered the absence of female architects despite their perceived suitability and potential in the field.
"Women ought to agitate to be articled to some of our architects, many of whom, unfortunately, have neither taste or ideas, and could do nothing but calculate the bricks wanted, and the profits to be made."[2]
A number of male critics and journalists who specialized in architecture used this opportunity to negatively criticize women entering the architectural field, proclaiming it a "men's profession." These men included Thomas Raggles Davison, the editor of the British Architect, who published an article in 1902 entitled "May Women Practise Architecture?" where he came to the conclusion that "women are temperamentally unfitted to the production of good architectural design" and that "their lightness of touch," and "charming decorativeness lacked the masculine strength of handling needed for architecture."[2]
Women architects and designers from the Modernist era edit
In Dolores Hayden's book The Grand Domestic Revolution she explains the ways in which "a lost feminine tradition" led to a "redefining of house work and the housing needs of women and their families, push[ing] architects and urban planners to reconsider the effects of design on family life".[3] This idea of the changing needs of the family can be seen in the houses of Truus Schröder, Eileen Gray and LeCorbusier's Villa Stein de-Monzie. The Rietveld Schröder House is an excellent example of the way that the "modern" lives of the family demanded a new architecture.
"The Schröder House was not only a creative work of artistic design but offered its users a new environment in which to redefine family life, women's rights and the responsibilities of individuals and to each other"[4]
Much like Schröder, Gray designed an architecture that would address the needs of the occupants and the new family unit. Gray worked within the model of modern architecture, LeCorbusier's "5 points of new architecture" for example as well as addressing the issues of the building or home as an experience.[5]
Like E1027 and The Schroder House, Villa Stein de Monzie was rediscovered through feminist theory. More well known is the way in which this house called gender relations and the way in which the relationship between men and women was negotiated in a new way.[6]
This house is of particular importance in feminist theory because it called into question the typical domestic group and gender relations. This domestic group that included a married couple and a woman with her child called domestic space into question.
Grassroots architecture organizations that demanded equality edit
OWA (The Organization of Women Architects), Chicago Women in Architecture, and AWA (The Alliance of Women in Architecture) are just three organizations who developed platforms which aimed to shine a light on the challenges women encounter in the field of architecture due to discrimination, while also offering guidance and encouragement to their members in progressing their professional paths.
Women architects and designers in the present edit
There are a number of women in architecture who have continued and extended upon the work of women in modernism, like Tatiana Bilbao, Zaha Hadid, Jeanne Gang, Kazuyo Sejima, Odile Decq, Maya Lin, Elizabeth Diller, Farshid Moussavi, Toshiko Mori, among others.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "The 10 Most Overlooked Women in Architecture History". ArchDaily. 2019-12-04. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ a b Stratigakos, Despina (2016). Where are the women architects?. Princeton: Princeton University Press, in association with Places Journal. ISBN 978-0-691-17013-8.
- ^ Dolores Hayden, The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities, MIT Press, 1981. p. 3
- ^ Friedman, Alice T., "Family Matters: The Schroder House, by Gerrit Rietveld and Truus Schröder," Yale University Press, 2006. p. 81.
- ^ Constant, Caroline. "E1027: The Nonheroic Modernism of Eileen Gray," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol.53, September 1994. p. 265
- ^ Friedman, Alice T., Women and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Architectural History. Yale University Press, 2006, p. 96.
Further reading edit
- Coleman, Debra; Danze, Elizabeth; Henderson, Carol (1996). Architecture and Feminism: Yale Publications on Architecture (1st ed.). New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-56898-043-0.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Twenty-five women architects and designers you should know". Dezeen. 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Hall, Jane (2019). Breaking ground: architecture by women. London ; New York: Phaidon. ISBN 978-0-7148-7927-7. OCLC 1099690151.