[in-enaction] NIASA: Gender and Architecture

Gender and Architecture
  A Course for Teachers in Architecture at NIASA
  By: Neera Adarkar, Madhavi Desai and Pradnya Chauhan

  Feminism has been one of the significant social movements of the twentieth
century. It has had a vast and far-reaching impact on society at large,
changing
its very fabric and creating new identities for women. The women?s
movement has
affected both activism and scholarship in several fields in India such as
health,
literature, law, art, theatre and human development. Feminist theory has
much to
contribute to theoretical developments in disciplines connected with the
built
environment. However, these disciplines have lagged far behind in developing
feminist analytical frameworks or theoretical perspectives in the Indian
context.
In the West such research began to appear in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In
the twenty-first century, in Europe and the USA, the relationship of
gender and
the built environment is increasingly being built into the conceptual
frameworks
in related professions and the academia as seen through study reports,
courses and
conferences. In the
 Indian subcontinent, the lacuna in this area needs to be bridged within the
cultural constructions of society.

  Women as designers of the built environment face a tough situation. In
the past
two decades, there has been a sharp increase in the number of girls
joining built
environment related educational programmes in India. But when it comes to
active
participation in the professions, there is a drastic drop in the numbers.
So the
key question really is, ?Where do the qualified women professionals/designers
disappear? Why do they lack visibility in the practice and in academics??
This is
in contrast to other areas of the design field such as fashion, graphics and
textile design where women have increasingly become a part of the mainstream.
Without gender sensitivity, the built landscape is commonly accepted as a
neutral
background, even though; it is not value free. Most men and women
designers, in
addition, strongly believe in the neutrality of the profession and the self,
choosing to describe and view themselves as gender neutral.

  Extreme forms of violence such, as dowry deaths, domestic abuses and
foeticide are
visible forms of discrimination towards women. In addition, there are
invisible,
often subtle forms of conditioning, imbalances and inequalities as a whole
in the
society. These moderate the relationships and connections between gender
and the
built environment. Since architecture is closely interlinked with culture,
the
social complexities and symbolic aspects are manifested in physical
expressions.
Patriarchal values are reflected in the built spaces constructed in the
society.
These range from the historic and clear division of zenana/mardana spaces in
domestic architecture to the ambiguous denial of public space to women at
tea and
paan shops in modern cities. Unfortunately, the prevailing built environment
education, by and large, does not generate empirical gender studies. As a
result,
even today, feminist thought is being mostly ignored in professional and
academic
discourses in the
 country.

  This workshop will address teachers of architecture and will aim to create
awareness towards gender sensitive design issues as well as prepare a
platform for
more in-puts in the process of architectural education. It will have multiple
activities with stress on classroom discussions.


  A Course on Gender and Architecture for Teachers
  NIASA, Feb. 14 to 16, 2006


    SESSION I    SESSION II    SESSION III    SESSION IV    SESSION V
    10.00 ? 11.30    11.30 ? 1.00    2.00 ? 3.30    3.30 ? 5.00   
Screening      14
  Feb


    MADHAVI DESAI


  Introduction to the Workshop

  Self-introductions by the participants and distribution of reading
materials

  Group Discussion:

  ?What is gender and what is its relationship to architecture??

  An Overview: Women as Creators and Consumers of the Built Space
    NEERA ADARKAR


  Women and Space in Cities. Case Study: Mumbai.