To kick off L'Espace Féminin, we hosted a dinner at the Contemporary Food Lab in Berlin-Mitte. To this dinner we invited spatial practitioners - the majority of whom being women - whose work was particularly interesting for us. In order to stimulate conversation towards issues of gender, stereotypes, women's representation and space, we gave each attendee a placemat on which four questions were printed.
Prompted to think deeply about issues that many of us perhaps take for granted, our guests provided food-for-thought that has continued to nourish the project in the months that followed. See below for some excerpts, transcribed from the placemats. (Excuse the blanks, some handwriting took a turn for the worst towards the end of the evening...)
Does space have gender?
I don’t think so. I think that attributes like feminism or masculism attached to spaces are only clichés. Of course we can argue that any cliché is based on some _____. Space shouldn’t have a gender, but should be appropriated by anyone – feminin or maskulin.
I am sure it does. But of course it is difficult to know. If you are doing what you are doing because you are a woman, or because you are you. Maybe more important for my work ethic than being a woman is being a mother.
Yes, space is gendered. A woman in a short skirt at 3 am in a city centre object to be ____ and that will never change.
Yes, regarding, structure, form, material and atmosphere. But not regarding the architect more the „consumer/user. I am a woman not an architect and some places are „feeling" feminine.
Yes and on different levels: Inside/outside, Public/private, Center/Periphery.
Does the fact that you are a woman influence your practice / work ethic? How?
It definitely doesn’t influence the work ethic, but I guess it influences everything else (the ways of thinking, the choices, make..., etc.)
Of course it does. I remember once, when I just started the street gallery project (2010) I went to meet one of the ____. He didn’t want to work with me, only with my colleagues. When I asked why, he answered: I need woman only for sex.
I have the feeling it does not... but after tonight maybe it does. Femininity is not just brought by gender condition but also by education – meaning the „good way to behave“ – or what we are supposed to represent. Right! But so? For my practice – professional practice – maybe the most important thing I learnt from experience is to keep it a sexual-problem is not gender-problem.
When speaking about feminine spatial practice, attributes such as „social“ or „participative“ persist. Are those valid labels in your opinion?
No, these attitudes do not fit. Before we can answer this question, we need more woman architects/spatial practices. More there are as many woman studying architecture as men, but they somehow disappear after they graduated.
Yes, but not enough, because they have been copied and used as brands. We have the need of other vocabulary, with old words with new meanings: empathy, tenderness, sensorial and so...
I don't want to engage in this presumption. It has already determined and prescribed a feminine space. Feminine space is also 1.___2 threatened 3 physically weak.
Those are central themes in spacial practice overall and shouldn’t be limited to feminine practice and they aren’t the only themes feminin practice should be about.
Name one woman in the field of architecture/spatial practice/urban planning that should be a reference for L’Espace Feminin.
ANNE LACATON!
Maybe just the book "The intimate history humanity" by Theodore Zeldin and one of my favorite filmmakers: Kim Longinotto
ONLY ONE? Theorists: Silvia Federici, Maria Mies, Mariposa Pellostz, Vandana Shiva, Ethel Barzona, Gilly Karjevski, Valentina Marza (?)
Jean McDonald (Chile), Ada Colau (BCN), Itliar Gonzalez (BCN).
Eva de Klerk.
Kristin feireiss (mother, curator, business, brand manager, bitch, diplomat, politician, player of a ___field
She is an author: Marion Poschmann „Sonnenposition“ She is describing space (imaginary spaces) from a unique point of view
Sophie Delhay (my first choice would be Ethel Baron, but she's already here! Beatriz Colomina and well I would like in fact to name all the ones I have worked with: I do believe in common daily success stories. Kazuyo Seijima!
Jane Randell!
Lina Bo Bardi, Ray Eames.
Denise Scott Brown, Anupama Kundoo, Anne Haring, Tatiana Bilbao, Stefanie Unternährer.
Odile Deco.
Malkit Shoshan, Marina Otero, Pelin Tan.
ONLY ONE? Theorists: Silvia Federici, Maria Mies, Mariposa Pellostz, Vandana Shiva, Ethel Barzona, Gilly Karjevski, Valentina Marza (?)
All the woman in this room tonight.
Does space have gender?
I don’t think so. I think that attributes like feminism or masculism attached to spaces are only clichés. Of course we can argue that any cliché is based on some _____. Space shouldn’t have a gender, but should be appropriated by anyone – feminin or maskulin.
I am sure it does. But of course it is difficult to know. If you are doing what you are doing because you are a woman, or because you are you. Maybe more important for my work ethic than being a woman is being a mother.
Yes, space is gendered. A woman in a short skirt at 3 am in a city centre object to be ____ and that will never change.
Yes, regarding, structure, form, material and atmosphere. But not regarding the architect more the „consumer/user. I am a woman not an architect and some places are „feeling" feminine.
Yes and on different levels: Inside/outside, Public/private, Center/Periphery.
Does the fact that you are a woman influence your practice / work ethic? How?
It definitely doesn’t influence the work ethic, but I guess it influences everything else (the ways of thinking, the choices, make..., etc.)
Of course it does. I remember once, when I just started the street gallery project (2010) I went to meet one of the ____. He didn’t want to work with me, only with my colleagues. When I asked why, he answered: I need woman only for sex.
I have the feeling it does not... but after tonight maybe it does. Femininity is not just brought by gender condition but also by education – meaning the „good way to behave“ – or what we are supposed to represent. Right! But so? For my practice – professional practice – maybe the most important thing I learnt from experience is to keep it a sexual-problem is not gender-problem.
When speaking about feminine spatial practice, attributes such as „social“ or „participative“ persist. Are those valid labels in your opinion?
No, these attitudes do not fit. Before we can answer this question, we need more woman architects/spatial practices. More there are as many woman studying architecture as men, but they somehow disappear after they graduated.
Yes, but not enough, because they have been copied and used as brands. We have the need of other vocabulary, with old words with new meanings: empathy, tenderness, sensorial and so...
I don't want to engage in this presumption. It has already determined and prescribed a feminine space. Feminine space is also 1.___2 threatened 3 physically weak.
Those are central themes in spacial practice overall and shouldn’t be limited to feminine practice and they aren’t the only themes feminin practice should be about.
Name one woman in the field of architecture/spatial practice/urban planning that should be a reference for L’Espace Feminin.
ANNE LACATON!
Maybe just the book "The intimate history humanity" by Theodore Zeldin and one of my favorite filmmakers: Kim Longinotto
ONLY ONE? Theorists: Silvia Federici, Maria Mies, Mariposa Pellostz, Vandana Shiva, Ethel Barzona, Gilly Karjevski, Valentina Marza (?)
Jean McDonald (Chile), Ada Colau (BCN), Itliar Gonzalez (BCN).
Eva de Klerk.
Kristin feireiss (mother, curator, business, brand manager, bitch, diplomat, politician, player of a ___field
She is an author: Marion Poschmann „Sonnenposition“ She is describing space (imaginary spaces) from a unique point of view
Sophie Delhay (my first choice would be Ethel Baron, but she's already here! Beatriz Colomina and well I would like in fact to name all the ones I have worked with: I do believe in common daily success stories. Kazuyo Seijima!
Jane Randell!
Lina Bo Bardi, Ray Eames.
Denise Scott Brown, Anupama Kundoo, Anne Haring, Tatiana Bilbao, Stefanie Unternährer.
Odile Deco.
Malkit Shoshan, Marina Otero, Pelin Tan.
ONLY ONE? Theorists: Silvia Federici, Maria Mies, Mariposa Pellostz, Vandana Shiva, Ethel Barzona, Gilly Karjevski, Valentina Marza (?)
All the woman in this room tonight.