Urban environments are the product of a complex web of interdisciplinary powers.
Our cities are societal artefacts of which embody social, political, economic and
technological ideologies throughout the ages.
‘The feminist city doesn’t need a blueprint to make it real. I don’t want a
Feminist super-planner to tear everything down and start again. But
Once we begin to see how the city is set up to sustain a particular way
Of organizing society—across gender, race, sexuality, and more—we
Can start to look for new possibilities. There are different ways of
Using the urban spaces we have. There are endless options for creating
Alternative spaces. There are little feminist cities sprouting up in
Neighbourhoods all over the place, if we can only learn to recognize
And nurture them. The feminist city is an ongoing experiment in living
Differently, living better, and living more justly in an urban world.’
Leslie Kern. ‘Feminist City’
Cities as we know them today, have been curated almost completely by the influence of men,
across both political and physical landscapes. As a result, towns and cities are
inherently gendered; space is experienced, percieved and navigated differently
between genders. As a woman I have a nuanced, sometimes insecure experience
existing in space of which I believe results from the aforementioned dynamic.
Our role as the creators of sustainable, accessible, and safe cities extends beyond
designing and building new spaces. There is work to be done culturally, socially and
politically to increase territory for women in existing cities. Without this cultural
change, a perpetual cycle of sexist society- sexist space will flourish. With the role
of architects being to create place, space, and communities, I see the responsibility
of such professionals as being the pioneering actors of the cultural shift towards
city equality.
This guidebook and methodology implores architects initially to embed cultural change in the
lived world, reshaping perceptions and experience in existing space through
active campaign work. This in turn, is translated to accommodate marginalised
voices in the future of architecture, both through the structure of the profession
and the way in which the process of design is practised.
Philippa Humphries