WOMEN & ARCHITECTURE “From The Egalitarian Fight To The Female Brand Strategy. A Great Chance To Change Architectural Meanings”
UNIT 22
Izaskun Chinchilla & Carlos Jiménez The Bartlett School of Architecture University College London
2015-2016
1
WOMEN & ARCHITECTURE
22
2015-2016
UNIT 22 Izaskun Chinchilla & Carlos Jiménez We would like to thank all B-MADE team, Peter Scully, Bim Burton, Jonathan Martin, Melis Van Der Berg, Robert Randall, Inigo Dodd, Martyn Carter, Alvaro, Olga Linardou and Nick Westby, for their valuable support to all Bartlett students! As well, we would like to express our enormous gratitude to the whole of the Bartlett Office, nothing could be achieved without you, with Emer Girling, Izzy Blackburn and Jakub Owczarek on the steering wheel. Thank you so Much! We are endlessly grateful to Meredith Wilson, Michelle Lukins, Kimberly Steed German, Fani Kostourou, Athina Lazaridou, Covadonga Gutierrez Busto, Adriana Cabello, Gonçalo Lopes, Pedro Gil, Frederik Petersen, Jan Kattein, Bruce Irvin, Barbara Penner, Sophia Psarra, Blanche Cameron, Diego Delas, Marco Godoy, Yael Reisner, Christine Hawley, Chee-Kit Lai, Javier Lezaun, Eva Alvarez, Oscar Brito, Anna Mill, Joanne Preston, Clarissa Yee, Claire Taggart, Lulu Le Li, Ronald Cheape and Nerea Calvillo for bringing all their passion and knowledge to the Unit Crits and workshops, and to Victoria Bateman for her marvelous teaching support and coordination in our Ho Chi Minh City workshop. But the year would have been totally different without the support and expertise of Pedro Gil, unit22 Practice tutor! And Roberto Marín as our Structural Consultant! Thank you!
Yr. 5 Ana Alonso Albarrarín Ruben Everett Max Friedlander Hao Han Lily Papadopoulos Oliver Partington Li Wang Shuo Yang Timmy Yoon Nawanwaj Yudhanahas
Yr. 4 Georgina Halabi Whitney Hei Wong Huma Mohyuddin Yuen Nam Tsang Jack Sargent Laura Young
WOMEN & ARCHITECTURE “From The Egalitarian Fight To The Female Brand Strategy. A Great Chance To Change Architectural Meanings” Inequity has historically affected women both using and designing architecture in the city. This difference of opportunities and rights is widely evidenced through both qualitative and quantitative means. Looking firstly at the numbers: The Office for National Statistics in UK rated a pay gap of 25 percent (the mean hourly rate paid to female architects was £17.40, compared with £23.28 paid to their male counterparts) in 2013. Today women make up only 18.3 percent of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) although they make up approximately 40% of the accrediting in B.Arch and M.Arch programs In Switzerland, France and the Netherlands the percentage of women with a full professorship in Architectural Universities is less than 6%. In leading this and if we agree our cities are designed mainly for cars it is good to know than men in the uk still drive twice as many miles per year than women. In terms of qualitative research, a CABE study interviewing architectural students declares, “women generally find crits harder, being more inclined to ‘take it personally’ and less ‘aggressive’ and ‘competitive’ in defending their work”. Ursula Bauer affirms these ideas through her research into public transport in Vienna’s Ninth District where she uses questionnaire’s to capture options from the local residents and discovers “Most of the men filled out the questionnaire in less than five minutes,(…) while women couldn’t stop writing things like ‘I take my kids to the doctor some mornings, then bring them to school before I go to work. Later, I help my mother buy groceries and bring my kids home on the metro’” and of course, “we don’t embroider cushions here” famously replied from Le Corbusier to Charlotte Perriand when she
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strode into his studio at 35 rue de Sèvres, Paris in 1927, and asked him to hire her as a furniture designer. These, and so many other pieces of research have provoked a reaction: the egalitarian fight. Women have historically claimed to have equal rights however our year agenda does not try to contribute to egalitarian fight but will explore how a fully developed female mindset can create new business, cultural, social and environmental opportunities. The image of women we want to promote in our design exploration is that of a fair, clever and inspiring leader. We want to avoid representing and understanding women as victims at any stage of our research and design. Our year will be based in a ‘blue ocean logic’ (Kim and Mauborgne 2005): don’t try to compete in a ‘red ocean’ (already existing ways to focus your profession) but create new regions of unique opportunities. We will explore the opportunities for a change of ‘meaning’ and therefore for radical innovation (Verganti 2009) women can bring to architecture and urban design. Our research questions, meeting the Design Research culture in which Bartlett School is an unbeatable leader, will always be directed to find positive opportunities. We plan to develop them in further sessions, but this selection is a good start: + Assuming design developed by women has specific values, can introducing the ‘female brand’ in an architectural team allow finding more clients and new types of commissions?. + What strategic use of gender directed design and/or unisex design could empower women?. + An architecture understanding better women necessities,
would be universally felt as more welcoming for everybody? + Could massive incorporation of women to architectural practices leadership improve the working conditions providing intelligent and flexible schedules and forcing to reestablished the rules and the sense of competition?. + Would gender aware design for cities increase the environmental quality priorizing public transport and extending a culture in which citizens take care from each other and from their surroundings?. + Giving aesthetic legitimacy to the female taste (raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright coppers kettles and warm woolen mittens…) would help contemporary architecture be more appreciate by civic society?. + Is the philosophy of the domestic economy (flexibility, win and win logic and small scale) a good model for new entrepreneurs? Particular exercises proposed by the unit combine this year specific intention with the wider Unit 22 methodological background. Unit 22 encourages students to find their own site and program to work in, trying to develop the entrepreneur abilities required by independent practitioners and trusting a strong constructive pedagogical background. Though different terms are dedicated to develop specific skills and scales, students will be welcome to work in the same site and program all through the year.
“ The Armillary Sphere” An armillary sphere (also spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the celestial sphere, consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centred on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features such as the ecliptic. Armillary sphere was used to visualize the structure of the most complex scientific object of the moment: the universe. We think it is a wonderful device to understand our own wicked design problem: women and architecture. Students will be asked to build their own armillary sphere. They will place, in the center of the sphere, the female body of a specific woman chosen as user. Every week over the first term, students will design and build a scale version of an architectural element empowering her woman. We understand recent changes in gender roles as major opportunity for designers. The objects will grow in scale and impact affecting first mainly the body of the woman and then gradually a bigger community. Besides developing main design abilities, the making of the armillary sphere (scaled design objects, turning rings, and articulated joints) will help students develop their fabrication abilities. But students will also join these capacities with a high level of analytic and strategic thinking, deciding which are the facts that constitute the ‘latitude and longitude’ of a change of position of women in the architectural universe.
“Gender Aware Design for a Neighbourhood” Planning policy tends to ignore the fact that women and men use public space very differently and have different concerns about how it meets their needs. The integration of productive and reproductive roles, public transport priority, the value given to environmental quality and safety, the integration of diversity, the participated governance are strategic areas for architects and urban designers that we will exercise anticipating many of the professional opportunities our students will find when working as architects.
“ The Proud Female Brand” We will dedicate the third term to make a deep reflection on aesthetics understanding the ‘female brand’ or the exploration of aesthetics values associated to women as an opportunity for architects to engage with a wider public, to transit out of the mainstream, to echo biophilic principles that can be universally share and to enlarge and diversify values associated to heritage architecture. Our fieldtrip will have Vietnam as destiny and will happen in the transition between first and second term. Unit 22 students have been invited to participate in a workshop there in partnership with Ho Chi Minh City University. The workshop will refer to The Heritage Listing of French Villa area in Saigon (district 1 and 3) identifying extended preservation values under huge threats of new developments.
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CONTENTS
20-23
WOMENS’ COMMUNITY BRIDGE
“Using an architecture of inclusivity, subtlety and community to create a new women’s district for Saigon” Max Friedlander e: max@friedlander.de
8-11
THE NEWHAM COOPERATIVE
“Rethinking the delivery of housing in London through a new female led perspective” Oliver Partington w: Oliverpartington.co.uk e: olirobertpartington@gmail.com
12-15
A HOUSE FOR HILLARY
‘’A democratic forum of continued construction, both physical and digital, engaging the public with an equal politics accessible to all Americans” Laura Young e: laura.lizabeth.young@gmail.com
16-19
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SWEET CONCILIATION
24-27
THE GENTLE WOMAN’S HOUSE
“Redefining the femininity in architectural language through linking users and the environment in a more intimate way” Li Wang e: parcheetah@gmail.com
28-31
LYSISTRATA HOUSE
“Live together, farm together, dine together : A women’s self-build shelter and edible forest garden” Geogina Halabi e: georgina.halabi.09@ucl.ac.uk i: shebuilds_shegrows
32-35
CO-OP LABORATORY
“Collaborating with YouTuber housewives to shape the reproductive city”
“Reimagining the future of the Island of Widows through the participation in everyday science”
Ana Alonso w: cargocollective.com/analonsoalba e: analonsoalba@gmail.com
Nawan Yudhanahas w: nawanyudhanahas.tumblr.com e: nawanwaj.yudhanahas.09@alumni.ucl.ac.uk
36-39
WOMAN,BUDDHISM & CAPITAL
52-55
MAKER’S MARKET COMMUNITY PROJECT
“A speculative proposal about a social engaged Canary Wharf”
“Creating a women led co-art community to un-tap excess social resources through online managing and sharing.”
Shuo Yang e: Shuoyangarchitecture@gmail.com
Elaine Tsang Yuen Nam e: tynelaine@gmail.com
IN THE BIG CITY
40-43
“A new state of living, through the guise of the muse” Rubén Everett e: Ruben.everett@gmail.com i: @nothingisnotnothing w: cargocollective.com/rubeneverett
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ARCHITECTURE AS A LIFE GIVING CATALYST
“Reimagining spaces of birth and transforming medical relations of power to affairs of participation and reciprocity.” Lily Papadopoulos e: lilypapadopoulos@hotmail.com
48-51
DURBAR DHARMASALA SCHOOL
THE MAIDS COOPERATIVE
56-59
“Providing new cooperative and enterprise spaces for the domestic worker’s network in Hong Kong” Whitney Wong e: htwwhitney@gmail.com
60-63
THE MATRIARCHAL ENERGY INDUSTRY
“Reforming sustainability through a matriarchal energy industry” Han Hao w: haohan.co.uk e: Hanhaoha@gmail.com
64-67
KARACHI’S LEARNING CENTRE
“Empowering women through a sensitive reinterpretation of the Newar vernacular”
“Introducing new female led education into the city of Karachi”
Jack Sargent e: jack.sargent.10@ucl.ac.uk
Huma Mohyuddin e: huma3270@gmail.com
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OLIVER PARTINGTON T HE N EW HAM COOPERATI VE
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The Newham Cooperative establishes a new method of delivering homes in London, one where the decisions are placed into the hands of the residents and communities are created through the act of making. This project responds directly to the city’s current housing crisis by creating more democratic communities where homes meet the needs of the residents and affordability is established in perpetuity. Urbanistically the disused and disconnect site in Newham is revitalised through the provision of three elements. Firstly, a new transport network which puts the pedestrian, the cyclist and public transport at the centre, removing the reliance on the car to make a more sustainable and child friendly city. Secondly, a new, wild landscape weaves the site into the context creating new shared space which reflects the wildness of the River Lea Valley. Lastly a collection of public buildings harbors a new social life within the city, establishing places for conversation, exchange, sport and governance.
“Rethinking the delivery of housing in London through a new female led perspective� 11
At the scale of the block each resident takes an equal stake in the land, creating a new relationship to ownership that highlights the importance of the cooperative and where boundaries between the owned and shared are blurred through a new garden network. The homes are picked by the residents from a pattern book, borrowing from Wiki house technology, allowing complex elements like, structure and servicing to be standardised and assembled on site. The infilling of this structure is then completed by the residents utilising localised workshops creating a material language that contrasts the mass produced and the handcrafted. The project imagines three of these housing typologies, exploring different mixes of private and shared spaces and different ownership strategies. These include a commune for craftsmen, where the space between the workshops, bedrooms and street are blurred through soft and flexible boundaries. A community for young professions, where the house is arrange around function, allowing space for collaborative work and eating to be maximised and finally the family cohouse, where the traditional terrace is reimagined to create three new shared paces allowing childcare to be done is collaboration with other families. These experimental communities draw direct links to a rich history of communal living in the UK, a potential heritage that is perhaps overlooked in the current discussion on housing. These communities are evoked through the act of drawing, introducing complex narratives that borrow figures from different decades, creating visual links to groups such as The diggers, The Arts and Crafts, Garden Cities, Owenites and Plotlanders.
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LAURA YOUNG
A HOUS E F OR H I LLARY ( THE N EW TRANSPARENT PAR L I A M E NT )
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Following Hillary Clinton’s elected presidency in 2016, her new parliamentary framework proposes a democratic forum of continued construction, both physical and digital, engaging the public with an equal and evolving politics accessible to all Americans. Day 0 - 100: The Hillary Doll, The Portable Oval Office and The White House Pavilions Community A perpetuation of the Hillary Brand, Hillary’s first 100 days in office are tested architecturally at several scales: The Hillary Doll and phone app, The Portable Oval Office, and The White House Pavilions Project. The seven dials of Hillary; education, technology, mobility, nutrition, energy, farming and sustainability become physical architectures for direct debate with the president. A scale Hillary facsimile becomes a digital plaything: an app allows gamers to learn more about the world around them whilst responding to a database tailoring future education – meanwhile instructions reveal the reuse of packaging to create a DIY laptop. The Portable Oval Office may be carried by Hillary as a suitcase, unfolding for a variety of presidential encounters and scenarios, choreographed to facilitate debate at various scales and settings. The Pavilions juxtapose the identified strategies, proposing a crowdsourced architecture designed, built and accessed by all Americans. Users, inhabitants and gamers of every age participate in political interactions, precisely assembling Hillary’s manifesto for her term and future legacy as first female president for the United States.
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Day 100+ (Hillary’s presidential term): Originating from The White House Pavilions Project, the house will test architectural manifestations of Hillary’s key policies: domestic environment, work space and climate. A structural scaffold, composed of locally sourced defunct aerial towers are transposed on to the iconic site, providing a variety of architectural spaces, grand and intimate, in which to practice a new kind of politics. A transparent and interactive architecture is constructed by an equal design and construction team, whilst infrastructure such as headphones and augmented technology ensures the senate debate reverberates beyond the central forum, creating a truly accessible parliament – revealing truth beyond closed-door political rhetoric. Experienced at detail, building, city and national scales, The House broadcasts the potential impact an equal community
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“A democratic forum
of continued construction, both physical and digital, engaging the public with an equal politics accessible to all Americans”
may have, akin to Hillary’s book, ‘’It Takes a Village’’. A new female monumentality is established; complex, ephemeral, accessible and ever-extending, the project critiques the privilege of Washington DC’s previous icons. The scheme will grow in to the surrounding National Mall, activating the key public space through political exchange and broadcast, preserving this vital site as a public platform. The transience of future presidential terms is erased by The House providing a permanent stage in which strategies are planted and tested for the protection of the future of the United States community, irrespective of whomever sits in its Oval Office.
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ANA ALONSO ALBARRACIN S WEET C ONCI LI ATI ON
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Through YouTube, a group of Spanish housewives have created a network of support and influence about housekeeping, a job they are proud of and brilliant at. Recently, national media have drawn attention towards the popularity of these women, keeping however a merely anecdotal reading. Some of the coverage has gone as far as considering it an object of ridicule, generating cringing reactions and disrespect amongst audiences. The project reflects on this phenomenon. It considers YouTuber housewives as relevant actors in contemporary feminist discourses. Their online activity is interpreted as a form of activism, in defence of women’s rights and reproductive living. They are considered the unsuspecting heirs of 19th century material feminists. These were a group of women who took ownership of their role as social reproduction experts, making proposals for housing and neighbourhood designs that would better suit their 19
lifestyles and ideals. The project puts forward the hypothesis that YouTuber housewives may represent an opportunity to recover and adapt these design proposals. Through participatory practice, they could play a relevant role in tackling current issues of gender inequality in the design of living environments. The thesis focuses on establishing a collaborative relationship with these women. It seeks to initiate a conversation that may entice them to creatively contribute in the shaping of the environments they inhabit. This is done through the creation of a YouTube channel, as a medium to establish a meaningful, long-term research partnership. The design project consists in a reality series to be featured on YouTube’s new subscription service. This enterprise is to pump new life into 20
“Collaborating with YouTuber housewives to shape the reproductive city” rural Spain, filled with abandoned villages. The design learns from the housewives’ YouTube videos, and applies their tips to urban and architectural scales. Through these actions, this project makes an initial attempt at tackling a complex and ambitious premise. The hope is to open up a path of enquiry that may lead to further explorations on the reproductive city through participatory practices. In addition, the study brings insight to the possibilities offered by YouTube in disseminating of the practice and discipline of architecture.
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MAX FRIEDLANDER WOM EN ’S COMMUNI TY BRI DGE , SA I G ON
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This urban intervention incorporates the feminine principles in design investigated throughout the year. It is sited on the Saigon river in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and provides a new community space, for the female population of the city. Local cultural, social and political contexts informed the architecture to generate a proposal that is sensitive to its geography, yet radical enough to make a positive impact on the community. The materials used are locally sourced and are mostly customizable, allowing the users to adapt their spaces to their own taste. The architectural composition allows vistas across most of the scheme, with a series of walkways at different levels revealing different views of the spaces. This invokes a sense of inclusivity, where no space is truly hidden from view, whilst still retaining the required elements of privacy. Inclusivity, subtlety and adaptability formed the primary design principles for this investigation into femininity in architecture. At a master-plan scale, the scheme provides a new network of raised walkways through the city streets, encouraging an alterna-
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tive positive transport opportunity by way of pedestrian and cycle traffic. These will reintroduce plants and trees into the city, creating new green spaces for the inhabitants to enjoy as well as filtering pollutants from the atmosphere. The central hub of the scheme spans the river, connecting two socially contrasting districts, promoting the social synthesis of the local area. The bridge provides an arrangement of shared and private of workshop spaces, allowing women the freedom and space to run their own businesses. To compliment these, a series of communal areas provide cooperative facilities such as child care, education and entertainment. An expandable network of allotment gardens encourages local families to grow food and re-determine their relationship to agricultural production and waste. This interweaving of work, play and family responsibilities addresses the problems and limitations facing the female community living in the city today. Incorporating these programs into a holistic architecture has the capacity to empower the local female population to fulfil their ambitions without compromise.
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“Using an architecture of inclusivity, subtlety and community to create a new womens district for Saigon“
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LI WANG T HE GENTLE WOMEN’S HOUSE
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The research started with a Japanese court lady named Sei ShĹ?nagon, who lived 1000 years ago in the imperial palace in Kyoto, and worked as the counselor for the empress. Sei Shonagon’s writing -The Pillow Book documented the female perspective towards space, objects and life inside the imperial palace; it contributed in developing a very unique and specific aesthetics that later became the basis of Japanese culture. The aim of this project is then to compose spaces base on the traditional spatial perceptions : Oku-Depth, Ma-Duration, Sakai-Boundary, connected through the perception of Taos-Path. It is to redefine femininity in architectural language so that the built environment can be more sensed, linking users and the environment in a more intimate way. 27
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The project is situated in a local community of North Shinjuku, Tokyo, where the yellow blind path is present in every narrow street, connecting local facilities such as Japan Braille Library, Judo Therapy and Acupuncture College, and Tokyo Blind Welfare Association. The building shares the unique characteristics of this neighborhood- the yellow path; it is generally made for woman gatherings with various programs exploring the feminine sensitivity that the urban lifestyle lacks today. Adopting the typology of the traditional bathhouse, spaces are consisted of wet and dry thermal healing areas, spas, vertical and horizontal gardens with teahouse, as well as rooftop workshops and gathering spaces for the local women.
“Redefining the femininity in architectural language through linking users and environment in a more intimate way“
The project explores how weather recomposes the architectural environment, from the path to interior space through sensory perceptions; the sense of direction can be emphasized by silence and noise, physical boundaries can be soft. Spaces are defined by textures of the materiality, so that architecture is more intimate and sensible to all users.
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GEORGINA HALABI LYS IS T RATA HOUSE
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Set in Athens, Greece the project looks at a potential solution to the rise in the ‘new homeless’ – a negative outcome of the financial crisis. Currently, the only official system in place to accommodate for them, is a day centre run by a charity called Praksis. As an extension to this centre, and funded in collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos foundation, the proposal seeks women to build their own homes in municipalities that donate infill sites for a period of time. 31
Parallel to the misfortune that has hit the city, comes an opportunity for development – a rise in urban farming in the form of allotments and community gardens. The site for Lysistrata house is in the municipality of Marousi, which has already donated a large site to urban farming allotments for local residents. The design of the building involves a deployable structure from which the dwellings are suspended by cross-bracing elements. The construction is reversible and uses prefabricated concrete foundations so that when the building is taken away, the landscaped is left unscarred. By constructing only in the infill sites between the existing buildings, it tries to preserve the adjacent olive grove. By reaching maximum density for the urban block it aims to prevent further development on the green space which is transformed into an edible forest garden for communal and recreational use.
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Referencing Virginia Woolf in “A Room of One’s Own,” one-room housing typologies are proposed that accommodate vegetable gardens, walls, terraces and of course, women. The dwellings share common facilities like kitchens, dining areas, bathrooms and social spaces. Each dwelling is accessed from the communal circulation via an adjacent roof terrace. The terrace can be closed off for moments of privacy or opened up to welcome neighbours over for afternoon coffee, a chat in the morning or a glass of wine at sunset. The architecture uses natural shading and passive ventilation to accommodate for the Mediterranean climate and reduce as much as possible the reliance on heating and air condition. Domestic bio-gas plants are installed to provide electricity for the communal cooking and slurry for the edible garden. The dwellers make their own tiles to clad their dwellings. Aside from aesthetics, the tiles have a functional use in that they regulate temperature. For ecological reasons, unglazed tiles are used for the façades so that the final stage of firing is not necessary. Various aggregates are used to cast the typical blocks. The ideal block needs to be lightweight for self-building and strong enough for a dwelling. The tests include aggregates such as waste from the workshop, waste from the water jet cutter, food waste such as banana peels, polystyrene and cork. The ‘mess’ in construction is not hidden, but rather celebrated as n progress where the reality of DIY is that it is unlikely to be finished to perfection, it is unlikely to be completed in time. The women organise themselves into a rota each week to divide the tasks to be carried out in the building, such as maintenance, cleaning and gardening. The building continues to be in the process of construction. As more women move in, more dwellings inhabit the structure in an ad-hoc process. The typologies will continue to evolve with new and
“Live together, farm together, dine together: A women's self build shelter and edible forest garden.“
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NAWAN YUDHANAHAS C O-OP L A B
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“...Call
it
the
trickle-down
era
of
science:
Knowledge emerged from a confined center of rational enlightenment, then slowly diffused out to the rest of society. [...] Today, all this is changing. Indeed, it would be an understatement to say that soon
nothing,
absolutely
nothing, will be left of this top-down model of scientific influence.” Bruno Latour, French
philosopher,
anthropologist and sociologist of science, Wired Magazine, 2003. Latour disagreed with the idea that ‘science stops or begins at the laboratory walls’ and suggested that greater integration of laboratories into society could transform 35
the society itself. Dr. Nitsara Karoonuthaisiri is a female scientist who holds a high position in Thailand’s National Centre for Genetic Engineering and dreams of using her knowledge in food and biology to empower the community. She is also a celebrity, a brand ambassador and has appeared on several TV shows. The project builds on Latour’s vision of greater integration between science and community and the real-life character of Dr. Nitsara as a role model to the general public. Kret Island, or Koh Kret, is an island in the middle of Chao Phraya River in Thailand. ‘The Island of Widows’ as nicknamed by the New York Times due to the dominance of female population as the male left for work in nearby Bangkok, is a popular destination for culinary tourism where the women engage in food production from growing fruits and vegetables to cooking signature dishes for tourists. After almost 20 years of mass tourism, the environment of the island is now run-down and the women are struggling both to keep the island’s agricultural identity and to compete with other tourist spots. Responding to the unit’s exploration of the ‘blue ocean logic’ where one creates new unique opportunities rather than tries to compete in an already congested market, the proposal is a CO-OP LAB, combining a ‘co-operative’ and a network of devices and nodes – ‘lab’ at 4 different scales, to raise awareness in everyday science and encourage the residents to become more proactive in taking care of their own environment. Each intervention aims to empower the women from their health, knowledge, independence, to cooperative nature. Scale S is a tool kit which raises awareness in food safety and quality, hence improves the women’s health and well-being. Scale M is a mobile laboratory where 36
“Reimagining the future of the Island of Widows through the participation in everyday science.“
scientists researching in women and agriculture exchange knowledge with the women at harvest and planting time. Scale L is a restaurant where women are encouraged to become independent and run their own business. Scale XL is a co-operative hub which makes use of the existing lively market as a gathering spot for the residents of the island. In order to respect the agricultural atmosphere and the vernacular typologies on the island, each intervention is a hybrid, taking pieces from existing agricultural infrastructures, combined with more welcoming features of the local architecture such as bamboo, timber and fabric.
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SHUO YANG WOM AN , BU DDHI SM & CAPI TA L
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This project, Woman, Buddhism & Capital is raising a discourse among Feminist Sociology, Buddhism reinterpretation and Capital Space regeneration. According to unit brief, ‘Architecture and Woman’, Chan Khong, a Vietnamese Buddhist nun has been chosen as a unique agent to explore the project. Feminism is proving a methodology to approach a new social hierarchy; Capital space is considered as typical representation for current masculine world to be challenged; and Buddhism as an intermediary agent to connect them. As a speculative perspective, project is suggesting to apply public engagement to connect current business corporations and local community. This proposal is creating a new format of social engaged financial district.
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A relevant thesis has been developed, an analytical spatial discourse on how architecture of Buddhist monasteries has been contextualised globally, Buddhist religious practice and architecture have shown great adaptability to different localised contexts and formed active social relations. Social engagement between ‘exotic’ religious groups and a local society in diverse global contexts would mean bridging different cultural conditions and finding new forms of Buddhist sacred architectures. As seen through the study, this typology is not a fixed architectural genotype, but invariably a spatial hybrid responding to each context. Using multiple types of architectural and spatial tactics, the global Vietnamese Buddhist monastery thus emerges as a locally meaningful, adaptable and socially engaged entity. So, the project starts exploring a new spatial order and tectonic by prototyping a 1:5 armillary sphere, a body ring re-looking at the meditation and consciousness by providing acoustic installation; a room ring creates a soft partition tectonics to provide privacy, and building ring suggests a fabric tectonic into architectural fabrication. With the same idea, three 1:15 prototypes added as obits to the armillary sphere, Canary Wharf. The district has been considered as an isolated land to cut off the isle of dog, particularly bringing local community certain issue such as public activities, housing price. In the project, to reconnect entire isle of dog as one better habitable place for all gender, these four clusters of typology have been provided: Meditation Centre, Public Realm, Food & Farm, and New Monastery.
“A speculative proposal about a socially engaged Canary Wharf.“
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RUBEN EVERETT IN THE BI G CI TY
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In the big city is a project that tries to empower women through the idea of the ‘Icon’ and the role model. This is placed within a site that is currently under development to offer an alternative vision of ‘Silvertown’ a small area in the Borough of Newham within the Big City of London. The architectural responses vary in scale, changing throughout the project and adapting to a series of architectural interventions. The lack of commemoration for women within London was the catalyst for my project, noting that under a hundred of the 800+ Blue Plaques in London were dedicated to women. With this in mind, I aimed to build a community around centralised figureheads, or important women, who by association would inspire a greater community. One of the most influential and perhaps well known of my selected women is Virginia Woolf. In a ‘Room of One’s Own’ there’s a quote that reads: -Call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or any other name you please - it is not a matter of importance’. This quote used to describe the four Mary’s in chapter one is
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significant, in that it dissolves the usual values implicated on giving a name - a personal identification -in favour of creating a general subjective identity. This subjective identity is important as the character of Mary becomes universal, and as such becomes relateable to every reader. A universal narrative is key to the construct of my project; one that aims to empower women through the musing of five inspirational women. The aim is to construct a fantastical re-imagining of Silvertown using the following women as figureheads to promote awareness, equality and inclusivity. The following women I have chosen to be the new muses for Silvertown: Millicent Fawcett - Portrayal of Strong Feminine Leadership Elizabeth Welch - Portrayal of Music, and Ethnic Diversity Lilian Baylis - Portrayal of Theatre and Performance Virginia Woolf - Portrayal of Literature Constance Spry - Portrayal of Arts within Horticulture Throughout my research, I have been exploring how women have been portrayed and honoured within the city of London. Outside of being the Queen, women are by the most part, undervalued. With this in mind my theory is that women could have a much larger impact on society as a whole if they are placed within their own microcosm, free to expand, and build away from the view of the
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“A new state of living through the guise of the Muse.“
‘Male Gaze’ This project therefore proposes a new state of living within London using the five new muses as commemorative deities. This is not to say that these muses will be worshiped but instead be bastions for the wider community. The project ends with an exploration in to a space for a new muse, one born from the inspirational women that preceded her. This final intervention represents key moments in to the future of the site, proposing an architecture that is current, relevant and forward thinking for women and for equality.
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LILY
PAPADOPOULOS ARC HITECTU RE AS LI FE GI VI NG C ATALYS T
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‘’The female body became the unskilled spectator who only witnessed the functioning of another in her own place.’’ (Hermann, 2008) The focus of this project revolves around a very important stage in a woman’s life, her moment of transition into motherhood. Without questioning medicine’s lifesaving techniques, a woman’s entry into the hospitalised space of birth creates a preconceived role of a patient and in many cases a mere spectator. Anthropologists and medical professionals are questioning whether the medicalisation of childbirth has gone too far and state: ‘’It seems unlikely that any process which treats childbirth as a sickness could possibly be a healthy part of a healthy society.’’(Alexander, 1977) Today ‘solutions’ for the hostile environment of birth are found in the ‘’domesticated birthing room’’’ where a replica of the home is created and flowery wallpaper hide the medical equipment. The proposal challenges this notion of aesthetical representation and moves deeper than strategies of camouflage. Environments that trigger social exchange are the counter-acts of mere representation, which lean upon developing those power relations of ‘doctor’ and ‘patient’ to social relations. The site of the project is the island of Ikaria n Greece, described as the ‘red rock’ of Greece, known for its inhabitant’s life longevity, informality and spontaneous ways of life. The islands’ close knit farming communities are facing limited birthing facilities, forcing women to fly away from their home island to deliver on mainland Greece displacing them and their families. Stories that derived from my research trip’s workshops
“Reimagining spaces of birth and transforming medical relations of power to affairs of participation and reciprocity.“ 47
and interviews were embedded into the project and outcomes pointed towards disempowerment that derived from the lack of knowledge of the hospital space. When the relation of the ‘doctor/patient’ was transferred to spaces of Ikaria’s everyday- coffee shop/ festivals, market, that hierarchical relation was dissolved as it was allowed to develop. The proposal moved towards designing spaces of adjustability, multi-use and social exchange which transformed the passive pregnant body into an active participant. Depopulation of the Greek islands is partly due to the lack of health services but also by the minimal jobs offered towards young people. In order to create a self-funded proposal, start-up businesses which focus on the rich agricultural produce of the Greek islands attract young people back to rural villages. Here, the architecture becomes a catalyst for giving life back to a rural village, creating opportunities for the young, and companionship to the elderly of the dying villages. Retired doctors and midwives exchange their services and knowledge with those of the locals’, transforming hospitalisation to that of the arts of hospitality. Hospital spaces are rethought; the waiting room is transformed into a collective kitchen, where families prepare celebratory meals and labour lounges are surrounded by familiar smells and people, decreasing women’s stress levels. One is taken through various gardens; one of knowledge which is exchanged by the locals and visitors in areas of craftsmanship and farming, a garden of beginnings where multi-use housing expands according to family narratives and a garden of memories where the elderly share their stories of the past and create a depository of memorable objects. The garden of celebration concentrates outsiders and locals, where birthing once again becomes a social event, exposed, where the wait of the new member of the community becomes an opportunity for recreating childbirth narratives.
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JACK SARGENT
DURBAR DH ARMASALA SCH OOL
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The purpose of these designs is to facilitate educational access to all citizens, men and women, in turn empowering the women of Nepal. Currently one aspect that affects Nepalese society is the lack of a wider communication infrastructure. This inhibits education, predominantly in remote rural areas. As Nepal becomes more urban, this lack of access to educational material impacts across the country and disproportionately women. Via a series of interventions that work independently and alongside one another, I propose a time line of works that develop from small interventions tapping into broadcast networks through to ground-up redesigns of public spatial arrangements. In the final project the response to the brief combines the programs below to empower women through maximising their public exposure. These interventions are centered around and upon the real-life character of Mira Rai, an elite level ultrarunner who persevered against the ingrained gender bias prevalent in Nepalese society as a young woman (and child). Chosen as a symbol of possibility to all within Nepalese society, the designs below react to her and around her. 51
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“Empowering women through a sensitive reinterpretation of the Newar vernacular.“
The first intervention in this series is a Mira-scaled custom backpack designed to bring immediate access to the “Outernet”. Mira acts as the conduit that bring “lighthouse” hubs/ dishes/ equipment to remote regions in which she runs. The second design is a portable podium and way-finding device for Mira’s new “Women’s Running Club”. It acts as a series of signposts for racing as well as advertisements for sanitary supplies that bring the monthly act of menstruation to the fore, breaking taboo’s. The third in this series of interventions is a network of relay stations in remote areas of Nepal. By latching onto and building upon the existing Tea Trail infrastructure they bring the internet further into non-covered areas. By designing initially for Western Women Trekkers, a greater cultural exchange occurs, shifting perceptions of women’s roles within society. The above converge and develop to form the more permanent basis of the next stage; a floating school that replaces the damaged Durbar High School in Kathmandu. Earthquake-proof, it promotes a 3D learning environment, which maximises and integrates the use of technology within teaching, partners with local businesses and communities to fund, promote and execute crafting masterclasses. The design highlights and build upon local construction techniques, developing a vernacular that is unique and specific for the site and culture, developing and protecting the Durbar heritage. I propose that by bringing the activities of women in Nepalese society to the fore, they become safer (most harmed in earthquakes are women and children) and more evident to society. In turn this has the effect of normalising women’s roles within the community, empowering them to become whatever it is that they desire. The architecture of this project seeks to empower those that use it or reside nearby, through its encouraging, empowering and open architecture. 53
ELAINE TSANG YUEN NAM Maker’s Mar ket Commu n i t y P roj e c t
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Maker culture is an emerging phenomenon led by the recent advancements in digital fabrication technology as well as the swelling of online DIY communities particularly favouring women. Information and tools that used to be exclusive to large corporations are now accessible to anybody with a computer and an internet connection. This changing technological cultural trend is quickly inflating from a hobbyist scale to a fundamental revolution in our manufacturing economy. The act of value adding coincides with a business model that stress on near zero marginal cost which brings along alternative non-monetary competition with the assistance of internet. The Maker’s Market Community Project is used as the testing ground to reassert the programmatic relevancy of the co-workspace, residential space and market as a place of collaborative enterprise. The project propose to untapped capital of excess resources in the society, in terms of material, space and (wo)manpower, to create a new ecosystem of production and consumption that centers around a leisure, small scale and flexible business. 55
“Creating a women led co-art community to untap excess social resources through online managing and sharing.“
The project focus on the compatibility of a woman crafter to the entire Cooperative. The action of ‘compartmentalizing’ her life into multiple cabinets encourage the fluid society to find the highest common factor to the extent what could be reused to maintain low cost, and what is unique to each person to be shared with the whole. Actualized with a system of rail and boxes, an intricate map of sharing pattern is laid out, interweaving the online platform and offline world. Female makers are not confined to one spot. The Community Project is a wider map that connects to many more home working woman and provide them with infrastructural facilities at the local maker hubs and the larger ‘market place’ at the site. The makers’ studioresidence at the site is an opportunity to exemplify the sharing lifestyle. Different typologies expose the maker’s working pattern to the public, in a way to bring transparency to the alternative of their online persona and broadcast the works for mutual benefit with the cooperative.
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WHITNEY WONG THE MAIDS COOPERATI VE
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Throughout the centuries, women has always been associated with domesticity and constantly stereotyped by the nature of birth giving, motherhood and an intrinsic relationship between women and domestic house work. Among the domestic working sector, 90% of domestic workforce are women. The project focus on empowering domestic working women by restructuring the domestic service industry in Hong Kong. The cultural scene of having domestic workers, sprawling around the central business area has become a weekend’s norm. In terms of spatial exploration and to empower domestic worker, the project approach focus from user scale, in transforming the living environment to work space
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and community gathering space. Instead of the existing employment structure of having livein domestic workers, the project remodify the employment structure of domestic workers into a centralised domestic working hub and where domestic workers no longer entitle to one employer but to a corporately run system, where they can perform household task in a wider scale and to benefit from the economy scale as well as to empower them through forming a more define community. The centre point of empowerment focus on empowering domestic workers in a way which it create a knock on positive effect to the rest of the society, from working parents to promote a diverse culture in the city, and more household can be benefited by having domestic service. A hybrid between work space and domestic space where 60
a new type of working environment fuse with the domestic needs such as child care, elderly home, kitchen space, laundry room as well as production are to introduce nature into the city. Nature and production as a tool to empower user though planting evergreen as a tool for beautifying the city and cultivation for production. In terms of building construction, using traditional sustainable building material and method: Bamboo scaffold structure, to become another way of housing and modifying work space. Building program: a fusion of work place equip with domestic service and care, to make the society a more inhabitable and healthy working space for both users. The centralised kitchen will be organised in a vertical scale where plants cultivation for cooking herbs can be organised and kitchen organisation is divided according to different cuisine, the vertical kitchen core enclosed with a growing façade will be located the southern side as well as coffee plants.
“Providing new cooperative and enterprise spaces for the domestic worker's network in Hong Kong.“ 61
HAN HAO T H E M AT R I A R C H A L E N E R G Y I N D U S T RY
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The Cleantech industry is a rare sector within technology where there is a significant proportion of female representation. With women poised to lead the Cleantech revolution of the future, the project speculates on an alternative energy industry that capitalises on ‘feminine’ qualities to bring about new conceptions of sustainable engagement. The current patriarchal form of energy management has created a schism between production and consumption. Thus, an alternative scope and operation of industry is proposed, where production and consumption are considered within a coherent whole. The qualities of inclusiveness and contextualisation is critical. The curation of energy practices are considered within the domain of industry. To realise this, a new coalition of energy management is formed, including a wide range of female users to represent the diversity of citizens and energy use. As such, the distinction between ‘experts’ and ‘public’ are eliminated, while new factions of society are introduced as crucial agents within the industry. Sited in Silicon Valley, the masterplan involves a series of familiar typologies of human inhabitation to effectively interrogate and reinterpret human activities. The project is investigated through a variety of scales from urban design to furniture. Considering the specific lifestyles of women, the existing conditions of clean technologies are capitalised to be coordinated with
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“Reforming sustainability through a matriarchal industry.“ 64
sociological innovations. For instance, the staggered production of different energy sources is utilised to create flexible working slots to empower working mothers. The predominant state of sustainable engagement relies extensively on the performance of devices to better inform users’ behaviour. The project however, focuses instead on the curation of action based participation to cultivate new forms of energy practices. Referencing the writings of Noortje Marres, physical objects are assembled to represent and discuss a political issue – in this case, sustainability. Specific Architectural assemblies are designed to become key agents to redefine the correlations between energy production, management and consumption.
Architecturally, materials and technologies are applied in a soft and fragmented fashion, thus rendering the performativity of objects legible and operable. A more corporeal and intimate relationship is cultivated between users and the physical characteristics of their built environment. Lastly, the project evaluates the environmental designs against typical routines of citizens. The synchronisation of domestic, work and recreation activities are considered on both a city and user scale. Through the development of an ‘energy manual of the city’, the various roles of energy agents are clarified and established. The ample consideration of time would further articulate the coordination of activity, users and energy to formulate a new conception of a sustainable lifestyle.
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HUMA MOHYUDDIN KARAC HI’S LEARNI NG C EN TRE F OR HERBAL M EDIC INE AND BUI LDI NG C ON S T RU CTI ON
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It is very common for women in rural Pakistan to be denied an education or to purse work. This proposal allows women to gain knowledge on herbal medicine, local construction methods and business skills to help provide alternative means of health and income as well as sharing and empowering other women back in their rural homes. Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and the capital of the province of Sindh. It is Pakistan’s centre of banking, industry, economic activity and trade. It is home to Pakistan’s largest corporations including those involved in textiles, shipping, entertainment, arts, fashion, advertising, software development and medical research. The city is a hub for higher education in South Asia and the Muslim world. My program will allow a yearly intake of rural women from Sindh Pakistan. They will go to Karachi to be trained in business, computing, ways of construction using locally available materials such as bamboo and adobe as well as learn how to grow and nurture herbal medicine. The building will be a live/work centre for these women. These women will begin to build ‘herbal kitchens’ as well as create herbal teas and drinks. As well as teaching them the health benefits these women will begin selling these drinks to provide income for themselves. Therefore, allowing the
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public to participate. People can come, purchase drinks and hang out in the learning centre allowing an insight in to the lives of these women to create awareness of the rights of women across Pakistan. As time progresses the learning centre will expand across the site in Karachi, as women build homes and kitchens creating a strong all women community. This will allow these rural women to feel empowered from a small scale using appropriate technologies that are suitable to the social and economic conditions of a geographic area in which it is to be applied, is environmentally sound and promotes self-sufficiency on those using it. At a larger scale the women at the learning centre will learn to construct kitchens to take back home with them and help them in everyday life. Furthermore, these women will learn about the health benefits of herbal medicines and how to grow and nurture them to help provide alternate affordable health remedies back in their rural villages. With this knowledge paired with the construction skills gained, they can go back to their villages to create new homes, ways of living, herbal kitchens and small businesses, which can in tern help provide for themselves and their families without relying on their husbands. They can then share this knowledge with women and girls from their villages to create a community of empowered women.
“Introducingnew female led education into the city of Karachi.“
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HO CHI MINH CIT Y UNIVERSIT Y & UNIT 22 TURTL E ISLAND H ERI TAGE PROJEC T
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The field trip destination of Unit 22 this academic year was to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. An incredibly complex city in all economic, environmental, architectural and social contexts. The hyper development of the area is forcing a new definition of political organization between communism and capitalism, which is having a radical impact at both a macro and micro scale. Saigon skyline is growing rapidly combining helipad towers and French colonial heritage buildings on the perpetual verge of transformation or disappearance. This tension between architectural answers to the different contexts of Vietnamese History is forcing a debate to define which role should heritage buildings have in order to become an opportunity for economic, cultural and socialcapital growth. In our one week long cultural immersion, we put special attention to discover the role of women in Vietnam as starting point for discussion, and in Ho Chi Minh City in particular. The women situation is clearly polarized between the occidental pattern of education and development, and the struggles of women without education pushed out of
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the boundaries of legality, such as illegal street food vendors, cheap industrial work force, underground economy. The workshop developed in Ho Chi Minh City University, under the coordination of Victoria Bateman, linked those two topics of research, to give the decaying heritage buildings a new architectural life resulting in the application of the female brand strategy we have been studying this year. Five different teams were organized in order to increase the diversity of the workshop answers: Group 1 investigated a ’Heritage 72
Gateway’ through a pedestrian route that introduces tourists and citizens to the urban heritage of District 3. This focused on revealing new knowledge on the historical buildings allowing them to become more accessible through signage, wayfinding, pedestrian friendly urban design and creating a network of resting points. Group 2 celebrated the street food culture through their ‘Food Explorations’, a unique character of Saigon’s streets. These places are not only the spots to find the best food, but also to rethink the role of the public space, integrating a highly domestic program in high streets or small alleys. Group 3 discussed the role of students in the area, unpicking the relationship between the university campus and its enormous impact on the economy of the area (material shops, restaurants, crafts, etc). The challenge of this proposals was to investigate the potential of exporting knowledge and expertise of the university
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Participating Students Nguyễn Đức Nguyen Khoa Diem Phong Dong Thanh Hiền Hải Quỳnh Diễm Hằng Vu Tien An Huynh Tran Nhat Vi Tang Vinh Anh Duy Ho Trong Nhan Bui Ngoc Tu Duong Khoi Nguyen Truong Dai Hai Phung Danh Toai Huynh Duc Thua Le Ngoc Quynh Tram Vo Le Diem Hang Phan Lam Nhat Nam Tran Thu Thuy Tran Thi Thuy Lam Thanh Tung Vu Quynh Ha Chau My Ngoc Nguyen Viet Canh Tan Nguyen Huynh Nghi
22 W it h t ha nks t o
Ho Chi Minh City University
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