Gender Space Architecture This significant text brings together for the first time the most important essays concerning the intersecting subjects of gender, space and architecture. Carefully structured and supplied with 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. Gender Space Architecture marks a seminal point in gender and architecture, both summarising core debates and pointing towards new directions and discussions for the future. It will be useful to a wide range of readers wishing to explore this burgeoning new field, including those from architecture, art history, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies and urban geography.
Jane Rendell is Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Nottingham. Barbara Penner is conducting her doctoral research into architecture and romance at Birkbeck College, London, Iain Borden is Director of Architectural History and Theory as well as Reader in Architecture and Urban Culture at The Bartlett, University College London. THE ARCHITEXT SERIES Edited by Thomas A.Markus and Anthony D.King Architectural discourse has traditionally represented buildings as art objects or technical objects. Yet buildings are also social objects in that they are invested with social meaning and shape social relations.
Recognising these assumptions, the Architext series aims to bring together recent debates in social and cultural theory and the study and practice of architecture and urban design. Critical, comparative and interdisciplinary, the books in the series will, by theorising architecture, bring the space of the built environment centrally into the social sciences and humanities, as well as bringing the theoretical insights of the latter into the discourses of architecture and urban design. Particular attention will be paid to issues of gender, race, sexuality and the body, to questions of identity and place, to the cultural politics of representation and language, and to the global and postcolonial contexts in which these are addressed. Already published: Framing Places Mediating power in built form Kim Dovey Forthcoming titles: Moderns Abroad Italian colonialism and construction Mia Fuller The Architecture of Oppression The SS, forced labor and the Nazi Monumental Building Economy Paul Jaskot Architecture and Language Thomas A.Markus and Deborah Cameron Spaces of Global Cultures Anthony D.King Beyond the Postcolonial Architecture, Urban Space and Political Cultures Abidin Kusno Edited by Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner and Iain Borden Gender Space Architecture An interdisciplinary introduction London and New York First published 2000 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
© 2000 Selection and editorial content, Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner and Iain Borden; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner and Iain Borden to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Gender space architecture: an interdisciplinary introduction/edited by Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner, Iain Borden.—(Architext series) Includes bibliographical references and index.
Architecture and women. Borden, Iain, 1962– IV.82–dc21 CIP ISBN 0-203-44912-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-75736-X (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-17252-7 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-17253-5 (pbk) Contents List of Figures ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Prologue: Leslie Kanes Weisman 1 ‘Women’s Environmental Rights: A Manifesto’ 1 Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner and Iain Borden 6 Editors’ General Introduction PART 1: GENDER 13 2 Jane Rendell 15 Introduction: ‘Gender’ 3 Virginia Woolf 25 A Room of One’s Own (excerpts from Chapter 1) 4 Simone de Beauvoir 29 The Second Sex (excerpts from the Introduction) 5 Betty Friedan 33 Excerpts from ‘The Problem that Has No Name’ 6 Michèle Barrett 45 Excerpts from ‘Some Conceptual Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis’ 7 Audre Lorde 53 ‘The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House’ v ! Contents ! 8 Nancy Chodorow 56 Excerpts from ‘Why Women Mother’ 9 Luce Irigaray 60 ‘This Sex Which Is Not One’ 10 Chandra Talpade Mohanty 67 Excerpts from ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses’ 11 Joan Wallach Scott 74 Excerpts from ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’ 12 Harry Brod 88 Excerpts from ‘The Case for Men’s Studies’ 13 Judith Butler 96 Excerpts from ‘Subversive Bodily Acts’ PART 2: GENDER, SPACE 99 14 Jane Rendell 101 Introduction: ‘Gender, Space’ 15 Shirley Ardener 112 ‘The Partition of Space’ 16 Daphne Spain 118 Excerpts from ‘The Contemporary Workplace’ 17 Doreen Massey 128 ‘Space, Place and Gender’ 18 Rosalyn Deutsche 134 ‘Men in Space’ 19 Susana Torre 140 ‘Claiming the Public Space: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’ 20 Elizabeth Wilson 146 ‘Into the Labyrinth’ 21 Griselda Pollock 154 Excerpts from ‘Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity’ vi ! Contents ! 22 Meaghan Morris 168 ‘Things to Do with Shopping Centres’ 23 Mary McLeod 182 ‘Everyday and “Other” Spaces’ 24 bell hooks 203 ‘Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness’ 25 Elizabeth Grosz 210 ‘Woman, Chora, Dwelling’ PART 3: GENDER, SPACE, ARCHITECTURE 223 26 Jane Rendell 225 Introduction: ‘Gender, Space, Architecture’ 27 Sara Boutelle 240 ‘Julia Morgan’ 28 Lynne Walker 244 ‘Women and Architecture’ 29 Denise Scott Brown 258 ‘Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture’ 30 Dolores Hayden 266 ‘What Would a Non-sexist City Be Like? Speculations on Housing, Urban Design and Human Work’ 31 Frances Bradshaw (Matrix) 282 ‘Working with Women’ 32 Karen A.Franck 295 ‘A Feminist Approach to Architecture: Acknowledging Women’s Ways of Knowing’ 33 Labelle Prussin 306 Excerpts from ‘The Creative Process’ 34 Beatriz Colomina 314 Excerpts from ‘The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism’ vii ! Contents ! 35 Zeynep Çelik 321 Excerpts from ‘Le Corbusier, Orientalism, Colonialism’ 36 Alice T.Friedman 332 ‘Architecture, Authority and the Female Gaze: Planning and Representation in the Early Modern Country House’ 37 Henry Urbach 342 ‘Closets, Clothes, disClosure’ 38 Joel Sanders 353 ‘Cadet Quarters, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs’ 39 Diane Agrest 358 ‘Architecture from Without: Body, Logic and Sex’ 40 Jennifer Bloomer 371 ‘Big Jugs’ 41 Elizabeth Diller 385 ‘Bad Press’ 42 Epilogue: bell hooks, Julie Eizenberg, Hank Koning 397 Excerpts from ‘House, 20 June 1994’ Bibliography 399 Index 424 viii ! Figures 16.1 The office architect is cautioned that the initial space study must illustrate the ‘relationships of the organization’ clearly to the client 123 16.2 This design represents the German Quickborner Team’s approach to Bürolandschaft 125 21.1 Mary Cassatt, ‘Little Girl in a Blue Armchair’ (1878) 160 27.1 Julia Morgan, ‘Hearst Castle’, San Simeon, California 241 30.1 Suburban neighbourhood a) Block plan; b) Proposed HOMES revitalization: c) Same suburban block with new common space and facilities 275 30.2 Suburban single-family house, plan, three bedrooms plus den 276 30.3 Proposed HOMES revitalization; same house converted to three units (two bedroom, one bedroom and efficiency), plus dial-a-ride garage and collective outdoor space 277 31.1 Plan for the Stockwell Health Centre, South London—a proposed design based on community needs 285 31.2 Drawings that compare the building used by the East London Dalston Children’s Centre with its new premises, a former warm bath house 286 34.1 Adolf Loos, Müller House, Prague 315 36.2 Hardwick Hall, plans of the principal floors 337 37.1 Second-floor plan for a labourer’s cottage showing closet hidden within the wall cavity 343 37.2 Free-standing mobile cabinets 344 38.1 View of Vandenberg Hall, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs 354 38.2 View of closet, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs 355 41.1–6 Elizabeth Diller, ‘Shirts 1–6’ 390–395 ix ! Preface Architecture is a subject which demands to be understood in context: that is, within the context of its production (society, economics, politics, culture) and the context of its consumption, representation and interpretation (different academic disciplines, interest groups, institutions, users). In the light of enormous and rapid shifts in theoretical, historical and critical debates, particularly with respect to feminism, understanding architecture in relation to gender demands an urgent contextualisation. A major change in thinking about gender, feminism, space and architecture has occurred in the last five or so years and it has become vital to place current discussions within an intellectual history, enabling some understanding to be gained of the basis and development of these contemporary ideas.
Gender, Space, Architecture intends to do just that. The purpose of the book is to provide a comprehensive introduction to issues of gender as they pertain to architectural studies. This is the first such book to include a range of key texts from both within and outside architecture published over the last twenty years. It also provides a clear framework by which to investigate the subject.
Gender, Space, Architecture simultaneously presents closure and aperture—a momentary recapitulation of seminal texts both past and present—as well as providing an opening of the territory to future new ideas and practices. We imagine readers to come with varying interests from a number of different areas: first from within architecture with an interest in gender; second from within gender studies with an interest in space and architecture; and third from within spatialised disciplines, such as geography and anthropology, with an interest in gender and in architecture. As with any introductory text, the geographic and historical scope of the subject matter of Gender, Space, Architecture is limited to the availability of current research and published material. First, the material is restricted by geography.
Most of the writers and the subjects they refer to are western in origin, many in fact from the United States where much of the work has been undertaken. Here, xi ! Preface ! however, we would recall bell hooks’ cautionary reminder that rather than undertaking a geographic tour in search of ‘difference’ and eternal ‘otherness’, it is better to understand the formation of difference and to find ways of reconciling its divisions and violence. Second, the historical range of the material in Gender, Space, Architecture has been similarly constricted to the history of western civilisation, that is, by the conventional boundaries of western architectural history. Where possible, subjects and authors addressing topics outside the realms of Euro-America, as well as questions of cultural hybridity, ethnicity and black politics have therefore been included.
We hope that omissions in this context will motivate further research in this field. A similar point needs emphasising in relation to sex and sexuality. While we have included a number of essays by male contributers and material which explores queer theory, homosexuality and masculinity, it is the case that the majority of chapters deal with the feminine and female aspects of gender and consider sexuality from a heterosexual perspective. Such a bias reflects the shape of the subject area historically, although it is important to add that currently there are clear indications of a dramatic increase in research on masculinity, men and architecture, as well as gay politics, queer theory and urban space.
The editors would like to thank Beatriz Colomina, Neil Leach, Katharina Ledersteger-Goodfriend, Sarah Lloyd, Caroline Mallinder, Leslie Kanes Weisman and Sarah Wigglesworth for their support in the project and for valuable suggestions. Many thanks also to Claire Haywood for her invaluable efforts in compiling the index, and to Rebecca Casey, Ruth Jeavons and Bettina Wilkes for their hard work in producing this volume. Over the past five years discussions with students at the Bartlett School of Architecture, Chelsea College of Art and Design, Winchester School of Art, Kingston University and the University of Nottingham have also shaped the final form of this volume. In particular, we have been delighted to work with our series editors, Anthony King and Thomas Markus.