Architecture and Feminism

Architecture and Feminism Architecture and Feminism YALE PUBLICATIONS ON ARCHITECTURE EDITORS Debra Coleman I Elizabeth Danze I Carol Henderson PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS PUBLISHED BY Princeton Architectural Press 37 East 7th Street New York, NY 10003 2lll.995.962o ©1996 Debra L. Coleman, Elizabeth Ann Danze, and Carol jane Henderson ISBN 1-56898·043-4 All rights reserved. 99 98 97 96 4 3 2 l FIRST EDITION No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews. Printed and bound in the United States Book design and production editing: Sara E. Stemen special thanks to Caroline Green, Clare Jacobson, Therese Kelly, Mark Lamsler, and Annie Nitschke-Kevin C. Lippert, Publisher LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN· PUBLICATION DATA Architecture and Feminism: Yale Publications on Architecture/ editors, Debra Coleman, Elizabeth Danze, Carol Henderson p.cm. Includes bibliographical references ISBN 1-56898·043-4 (pbk.) I. Feminism and architecture. I Coleman, Debra, 1959- 11. Danze, Elizabeth, 1956- . III. Henderson, Carol, 1962- IV. Yale University. School of Architecture. NA2543.F45A73 1996 720' .82-dc20 96-34510 CIP For a free catalog of other books published by Princeton Architectural Press, call toll-free 800.722.6657 Visit Princeton Architectural Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.papress.com Contents Acknowledg;ments vii Introduction ix DEBRA COLEMAN Everyday and "Other" Spaces MARY McLEOD The Knowledge of the Body and the Presence ofHistory- Toward a Feminist Architecture 3 a DEBORAH FAUSCH see angel touch so AMY LANDESBERG AND LISA QUATRALE Project Manual for the Glass House 12 CHRISTINE S. E. MAGAR Vi CONTENTS The Walled- Up Bride: An Architecture ofEternal Return 1 os MANUELA ANTONIU Edith Wharton, The Decoration of Houses, and Gender in Turn-ofthe Century-America 1Jo VANESSA CHASE The Story ofHon-Katedral: A Fantastic Female 161 MOLLY HANKWITZ The Lair of the Bachelm· 1 aJ GEORGE WAGNER A Revolution in the Woman's Sphere: Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen 221 SUSAN R. HENDERSON Contributors 254 Illustration Credits 2 56 Acknowledgments This book grew from our efforts to create an ongoing forum at the Yale School of Architecture for the discussion of the relationship between architecture and feminism. Originally conceived as the Yale Journal of Architecture and Feminism, this endeavor was enthusiastically supported and encouraged by Dean Thomas Beeby. We are especially grateful to him. We also thank his successor, Dean Fred Koetter, for his continued endorsement of this project. Deborah Berke, our faculty advisor, provid ed invaluable assistance on a day-to-day basis. We could never thank her enough. Both to cultivate a diverse group of authors, and to promote the idea that architecture and feminism is an important area of study, we issued an open call for papers and projects. In response, we received over one hun dred submissions. At the time, this project was still conceived of as a jour nal, and we believe that one of the reasons for this robust response was the endorsement that the journal's Advisory Board gave to the project. For their time and support, we thank: Diana Agrest, Thomas Beeby, Deborah Berke, Esther da Costa Meyer, Kenneth Frampton, Catherine Ingraham, Barbara Kruger, Mary McLeod, Toril Moi, Linda Nochlin, viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Daniela Puppa, Adele Santos, Denise Scott Brown, Norma Sklarek, Susana Torre, Billie Tsien,Jennifer Wicke, and Mark Wigley. The numerous submissions were reviewed by a dedicated editorial board whose hard work and thoughtfulness were critical to the develop ment of this book. We are grateful to: Larry Chang, Margaret Chisolm, Clay Eicher, Pamela Fischer, Kimberly Jones, Jeanne Lawrence, Courtney Mercer, Robin Osler, Elaine Rene-Weissman, and Paul Udris. Kimberly Jones and Courtney Mercer deserve special acknowledgment for their contributions to this project at its inception. We also thank all of the people who sent us their work, which, in addition to being interest ing, provoked a number of animated discussions. We owe special thanks to Mary McLeod for her advice, wisdom, and scholarship. We also thank the faculty and staff of the Yale School of Architecture, especially Alan Plattus, Sandra Cloud, and Lorraine Amendola. We thank Angela Giral from Columbia University's Avery Library, and Peter Matorin ofBeldock Levine and Hoffinan for their spe cial assistance. In addition, thanks are due to Lutfi Ozkok and Josef Astor for their exceptional generosity. We also want to acknowledge the individuals at Princeton Architectural Press whose efforts made the production of this book pos sible. We thank Kevin Lippert for his interest in our project, and Clare Jacobson and Ann Urban for their initial publication coordination. We are particularly grateful to our editor, Sara Stemen, for her keen oversight and sympathetic assistance. Finally, for their endless patience and support of what has at times seemed like a unending project, we thank John Blood, Bruce Graham, and Cilia Smith. Introduction DEBRA COLEMAN What is "outside" is not simply the Other-the "not me"-hut a notion of futurity-the "not yet" .... Will what appears as radically Other, as pure exteriority, he that which we refuse and abject as that which is unspeakably "Other," or will it constitute the limit that actively contests what we already comprehend and already are? -JUDITH BUTLER, "FOR A CAREFUL READING" 1 The cover of a magazine shows a woman running and then jumping over a small stool. Since she is one of Eadweard Muybridge's specimen subjects, her movement is captured frame-by-frame; unlike many of his other subjects, however, this woman is completely clothed (this is a pro fessional magazine). Muybridge's jumping woman has been borrowed from the pages of his 1887 Animal Locomotion in order to perform in the service of the cover story "Women in Architecture: Leveling the Playing Field." In this context the footstool is transformed into a drafting stool, and the woman into a contestant. The stakes? Equity. She is the Susan B. Anthony of the drafting room. Or is she? X INTRODUCTION Published in 1995 in the now defunct Prowessive Architecture, the article "Women in Architecture" is part chronicle, part editoriaJ.2 It describes in general terms the difficulties women still face as architects and students, and suggests that architecture (as a profession) risks being consigned to the margins of culture unless greater "gender diversi ty" is achieved within its ranks. Significantly, feminism is never men tioned. Instead, "gender" appears in tandem with words such as "gap," "discrimination," "bias," and "equity" to describe what is wrong with or missing in the architectural profession. But then it's not surprising that a mainstream architectural magazine would choose more user-friendly terms to describe the problems and goals of women in architecture. Feminism, especially as it's often used in mass culture, is an unpopular word, raising as it can the specter of the spinster boomer, the burned-out supermom, the childless career woman, and, of course the man-hater and the lesbian. Even among women, feminism is often misunderstood and perhaps even a little feared. As reported by Susan Faludi in The Nation, when asked if they are feminists, "51 percent of (American] women say yes; when told that a feminist is 'someone who supports polit ical, economic, and social equality for women,' the proportion jumps to 71 percent."' It would be easy to criticize the purveyors of "Women in Architecture" for failing, not so much because of their inability to choose between the goals of feminism and the alternative, the status quo, but because in their inability to say "feminism" they dilute or sanitize their message. As a result, this message becomes just another patient-and compromising-reminder of how far the profession has yet to go. The remedies proposed in "Women in Architecture" are, in fact, underwritten by such complaisance. While a few of the suggestions are of the self-help variety ("set your own goals, ask for challenging assignments"), many more rely on the goodwill and authority of the American Institute of Architects, National Architectural Accrediting Board, Equal Employ ment Opportunities Commission, and universities to change policies and set new standards (under the dubious proposition that giving more INTRODUCTION Xi power to the already powerful will create more equity). As the article's author notes, there is an even less proactive, if more depressing, approach: "Many people believe that a generation or two must die out before a real paradigm shift can occur."4 But as Laurie Anderson sardon ically observed in her song "Beautiful Red Dress," there is an inter minable half-life quality to this kind of wait-and-see approach: "You know, for every dollar a man makes a woman makes 63 cents. I Now, fifty years ago that was 62 cents. I So, with that kind ofluck, it'll be the year ,'3,888 before we make a buck.m Despite the statistics regarding the participation of women in archi tecture-as reported in Progressive Architecture, one-third of undergrad uate and graduate students, g.I percent of regular AlA members, and 8. 7 percent of tenured facultf-there is no consensus that feminism is rele vant to this still largely masculinist discipline. In fact, many women seek ing acceptance in this field disassociate themselves from talk of gender difference in order to escape "being tarred by the brush of female Otherness, of being contaminated by things ~female.' m(For example, the notion "woman architect," widely disdained for presupposing an odious distinction between architects and women architects, is seen by many as an unavoidable outgrowth of gender consciousness.) Some women worry that feminism will tarnish their architectural careers. Feminism is "too radical," and its opposing nature is unseemly in a field that values a pos ture of gentility.

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