Historically, working as a housewife has been highly devalued, underappreciated and even ridiculed. Even today, women assuming domestic work are associated with a caring, motherly figure that provides physical and emotional shelter and creates a home. This housewife stereotype comes from rooted deeply in created by society’s gender norms and assigning to women the role of a “natural caregiver”, intersected by class hierarchy and racial biases. However, as argued by Maria Mies, the housewifisation process is a creation of economical strategies aimed at profit. In XX-century Poland, during the interwar and post-World War II period, women were orientated towards domestic labour, which resulted in preventing them from pursuing a career, including architecture. To become a housewife, women would not only rely on knowledge passed onto them from their mothers. Not only adult women, but even young girls in elementary schools were taking lessons to prepare them for the future role of a housewife, that is educated in the field of home economics, including management, finances, health and even architecture. The paradigms and ideology of scientific management lead to the establishment of Instytut Naukowej Organizacji [Institute of Scientific Management] in 1925 and Związek Pań Domowych [Housewives Association] in 1930, to promote and expand knowledge necessary for effective management of household equally amongst housewives of different experience and background. Based on archival information and documentation gathered from Biblioteka Raczyńskich [Raczyńskich Library] in Poznań, as well as literature review such as the journal Organizacja Gospodarstwa Domowego [Household Management] run by Housewives Association 1927-1939, this history thesis explores the strategies and processes standing behind the process of housewifization in the interwar period in Poland, to analyse the impact of the housewives on housing design between 1927-1935. ... Read more

Bulgarian women were one of the first to pursue higher education of architecture in Europe when it became possible in the beginning of the 20th century, starting with Elena Markova (1894-1970) in Berlin, graduating in 1917. Women architects make a key contribution to Bulgarian modernism during the interwar period, while establishing partnerships not only with other male architects, but also with other women architects, yet their deeds are deeply overlooked. This is the case of Victoria Angelova-Vinarova and Mara Zaharieva, and their impressive Raduntsi Sanatorium, the largest sanatorium built in the Balkans at that time. Victoria Angelova-Vinarova graduated from Dresden. In 1926, at the age of twenty-five, she won a competition for the design of the new building for the Ministry of Public buildings, roads, and public works, marking her breakthrough in the industry. In 1939, together with Mara Zaharieva, they won a competition for the design of the colossal sanatorium in Raduntsi village. This architectural history thesis sheds light on the life and career of Bulgarian women architects in the interwar period, while focusing on the Raduntsi sanatorium case as an extremely singular architectural heritage that has not yet been protected. The aim of the research is to document the significance of women-led projects to break the historical depreciation of women’s work in technology and engineering professions. ... Read more

After the First World War, there was a housing shortage in The Hague, not only for the working and middle classes but also for the upper ones. Between 1925 and 1929, Dutch architects Jan Duiker and Jan Gerko Wiebenga designed and realized in The Hague the first residential hotel made of a reinforced concrete structure: the revolutionary Nirwana-flat. The residential hotel has a height of 25 meters with seven floors and a penthouse on the roof. High-rise was efficient, hygienic, comfortable, cheap, and the solution to the housing shortage. Functionality and efficiency played an important role in the design of the Nirwana-flat. The purpose of the flat was to allow a large number of people to live in a relatively small area which includes a cluster of luxury apartments with access to collective facilities, a lift, a restaurant, and a launderette.
This architectural history thesis aims to explore the design of the Nirwana-flat in the socio-historical context during the 1920s and 1930s in the Netherlands. The research has been based on archival sources such as media publications, magazine articles, architecture magazines from the time of construction and after the construction of the Nirwana-flat, and the plans at the Duiker Archive. The thesis firstly explores the typology of the residential hotel in The Hague, then the Nirwana-flat (1925-1929), to finally address the media coverage of the Nirwana-flat once built.
Finally, it concludes that in the first decades of the 20th century, the concept of residential hotels and their application has been the subject of debate and differing opinions. This included population density, urban planning, and balancing private space and communal living. As a result, the debate continued to shape discussions around housing policies and urban planning in The Hague and beyond.
All in all, the (hi)stories around the Nirwana-flat prove its important socio-historical significance for the development of housing architecture.
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Architects have historically played an important role in kitchen designs, including notable female architects like Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, author of the 1926 Frankfurt Kitchen. Their solutions resulted not only from practical needs, but also from social and cultural changes at the time. This was also the case in Poland, although this is less widely recognized in Western architectural history. Barbara Brukalska, born in Brzeźce, Poland in 1899, was one of the first women to graduate from Warsaw University of Technology’s Faculty of Architecture and became the first female professor there in 1948. She worked in partnership with her husband Stanisław and together they became one of the most notable duos in modern architecture before II World War. In one of the housing estates they designed, Barbara proposed a model of a functional kitchen. This research examines the impact of her kitchen design, based on a review of existing literature. The paper begins with an analysis of Polish social changes after the I World War and kitchens before Brukalska’s contribution, followed by an outline of modern kitchens and ideas developed in North America and Germany. Then, Barbara Brukalska’s ideas are outlined and qualitatively analysed in the context of her life. In conclusion, an assessment is made of the actual impact of her proposed solutions, which in the end did not meet her expectations within the Polish society. ... Read more

Throughout history, women’s emancipation has affected architectural designs. Collective or communal buildings for women on their own have been documented at least since medieval times. Yet, in China’s Canton region, a unique women-only building typology has remained unfamiliar to the general public. The Aunt’s Houses refer to communal buildings for self-combed women – a group of women who tied their hair up as a vow of never marrying. Originating in the 1880s, this custom was distinctive to China’s Canton Delta. It thrived with the region’s silk economy development (1900-1930) and eventually faded towards the end of the 20th century alongside the modern country’s reformation. As a place to accompany and support each other, the Aunt’s Houses were the retreat for self-combed women after rebelling against the patriarchal society. Bing Yu Tang – “The Hall of Purity” – is the best-preserved case of such houses. Completed in 1951 in Shunde, Canton, the Hall of Purity was initiated by around 400 self-combed women as their collective retirement home. It was converted into a museum in 2012, along with the passing of the last generation of these women. Based on primary sources gathered from the field visit to the Hall of Purity, including contemporary and historical images and survey data, as well as archival images and literature, this history thesis takes The Hall of Purity as a case study and explores the uniqueness of self-combed women and their communal living places from its origin in the 1880s until its diminishment between the 1980-2010s. Through material and symbolic lenses of architecture, this thesis aims to document and comprehend the reasons behind self-combed women’s formation and the significance of architecture in the women’s community. ... Read more

This thesis contributes to shedding light on the significance of investigating and archiving the housing conditions of guest workers after the Second World War in the Netherlands from the 1940s to the 1990s. It is a topic that has not been sufficiently addressed in architectural and urban studies. The economic boom after the Second World War resulted in a lot of job vacancies, as there were too many jobs for the population at that time. As a result, employers went to look for workers elsewhere. It caused a large influx of migration in the Netherlands, which was mainly motivated by the aspect of temporality, as these guest workers received contracts for two years. The guest workers were housed into two categories, the ‘casa’ housing, and the large-scale collective housing. Both typologies made sure that the guest workers were under strict supervision and isolated in their social and physical environment. Due to the temporality aspect, the housing was poorly built and inflexible for possible future needs of guest workers. The poor living conditions of guest workers led to the formation of independent organisations, such as the Aktiekomitee Pro Gastarbeiders, which was founded in 1969. This organisation defended the housing rights of guest workers. However, it lost its support and subsidies at the beginning of the 1990s. As a result, it led to a weaker position for migrants in society. Sadly, today’s migrants do not have independent organisations to speak out about their problems. The research used to support this argument is done through archival research gathered from the Gelders Archief and Stadsarchief Rotterdam, as well as investigating historical newspapers. The absence of guest workers in the historical narrative of post-war housing in the Netherlands is indicative of a larger issue surrounding housing for current migrants. Collecting the historical documentation of the typology of temporary housing for guest workers is fundamental to understanding the social history of migration in the Netherlands. ... Read more

Le strade libere le fanno le donne che le attraversano. [Eng. “The free roads are made by the women who cross them”. From Italian women association Non una di meno, 2017].

Advanced research carried out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published in 2018 found that women and girls consistently accounted for most of the reported cases of trafficking and sexual exploitation. In Milan, the National Union of Women (Unione femminile Nazionale in Italian) was founded in 1899 to defend women’s rights. Their archive, preserved in Corso di Porta Nuova 32, contains documents and materials such as magazines, images, posters, and minutes that prove their work on the territory starting from the foundation of a Committee within the association, which listens and welcomes victims of trafficking. Together with it, the foundation of the Mariuccia Asylum in 1902 contributed to the fight against the phenomenon of trafficking in women in the city.
Particularly books and articles such as Esistere come donna by Maura Palazzi and the book Il dilemma della cittadinanza. Diritti e doveri delle donne by Gabriella Bonacchi published in 1993. Complementary, the research collects and analyses the Periodicals published over the years by the UFN, concerning the trafficking in women in Milanese spaces after the regulation of the prostitution in Italy in 1860.
This thesis aims to explore the architectures around sex work and women’s movements from 1900 to 1939 in the city of Milan. Specifically, the building of the association, a brothel in a famous neighbourhood in the city and the Mariuccia Asylum.
Overall, the thesis sheds light into the spaces related to the work of the association UFN and sex workers at the beginning of the 1900 to finally contribute to document the history of women in architecture in Milan. ... Read more

The 1960s marked the start of a new era for Ethiopia. While Africa was in the phase of decolonization, Ethiopia gained more importance due to its status as the only non-colonized country in Africa. In the context of these historical developments, the emperor Haile Selassie aimed to modernize Addis Ababa, which was supposed to be recognized on the global map, with architectural designs that would make his country proud. However, how exactly did Addis Ababa undergo this process of modernization? And how was the representation achieved through architecture ? In this period, there was a great number of international architects who contributed to the modern cityscape of Ethiopia. But especially the architects Michael Teodros and Zalman Enav who worked together in a joint firm, have made a very great contribution. For the understanding of Ethiopian modernism it becomes inevitable to understand their approach and to address their works of modern architecture.
In order to understand how modernism expressed itself in Addis Ababa in the 1960s, this work will analyze architectural features of a political and residential building built by these architects. The documentation of the projects is provided by the Israeli Planning, Architecture and Development in Africa (ISPADA) archive, an online archive that studies Israel’s past involvement in architecture and documents architectural projects designed by Israeli architects. This work will explore in what way these projects contributed to the former plan of the emperor to create a modern capital of an unified Africa and if they actually led to the creation of a new African identity.
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In today's society, women are still not positioned as equals to men. This is no different in the field of architecture. When designing the built environment, the white man is still the norm and within the work field, the man still fills the majority of the higher positions in architectural firms. However, women have a different, more care-centric view of the environment than men, which enables them to look at buildings with a broader perspective and to enhance them substantially with other qualities. The feminist theory “ethics of care” explores the issue of how historically the primary responsibility of women has been taking care of others. This research connects the theory of ethics of care to the history of feminised domestic work and uses the historical progression of the women's advisory committee to examine the role of this theory within housing. In the Dutch housing sector, Vrouwenadviescommissies (Women’s Advisory Committees, VAC) of voluntary women have been set up since 1946 to assess the quality of use of dwellings and the living environment from the point of view of the residents, using their situated knowledge as housewives. The VAC Hengelo was founded in 1957 to provide housing quality advice within the major reconstruction task of this city, which was bombed in 1944, and was the first VAC in the region of Twente. This thesis aims to expose the difference between the male and female views on housing by giving examples of the female perspective through the case study of the VAC Hengelo during the years 1957 to 2017. Primary data collection has been done by interviewing former members of the VAC Hengelo and the housing association Welbions, and through archival research at the Municipality Hengelo. This secondary data was collected by doing literature research, with Carol Gilligan and her theory of the ethics of care, and Silvia Federici, with her theory of reproductive labour, being the leading sources. The case study of the VAC Hengelo is used to fill the research gap of the theoretical framework with the role that housewives have played in housing design through the Women's Advisory Committee. Background information on the origin of the VAC in general, the history of Hengelo during this period and the VAC Hengelo is provided to establish historical insight. The case study of the VAC Hengelo reveals, by examples, how the feminist concept of ethics of care could perfectly work as a background explanation of how women, through history, made choices in the design of housing in a different, broadening and more inclusive perspective than men.
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The Second Republic of Poland (1918-1939) was hopeful of rebuilding the nation. The country regained its independence after 123 years and got shaped by newly distributed borders in the Treaty of Riga. Following, 35% of the population identified themselves as ethnic minorities (14% Ukrainians, 10% Jews, 3% Belarusians and 2% Germans). The population worked on developing culture, architecture, and national identity. According to the Small Versailles Treaty (1919) non-poles had to have equal rights and be provided with free access to their own education and religion. The Jewish, living mostly in urban areas (74% of the minority's population), were the only ones to create their own science institutions and higher education facilities. They had literacy rates higher than non-Jews (24% amongst non-Jews were illiterate and only 15% among Jews) and became present in all social classes. In the first decades of the 20th century, it became common that Jewish people from privileged social classes would design tenement houses that they would later profit from or inhibit themselves. However, the representation of their influence on architecture became insignificant with the intensification of their persecutions after the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. This previous heritage, part of Polish cities’ history, has been marginalized ever since. Especially in the newly founded city of Gdynia (located on the North coast) which was experiencing rapid growth, the Interwar period played a crucial role. The city mustered numbers of young architects to practice their profession as it was blooming. As Poland regained its independence and people strived for a rebirth of culture, the new and fast to build modern architecture became favored. Central European Jewish architects played a crucial role in its growth. The research studies various works of the architects with Jewish roots like Władysław Grodzieński (1895-n.d.), Edward Fuhr­schmied (1909-n.d.) and Eliza Unger (1899-1983). Moreover, it examines how working couples (Eliza Unger (1899-1983) and Oswald Eryk Unger (1896-1967)) operated in the architecture profession with their modernistic approach. The analysis methods are the literature review, together with studying the city's archival materials, and conducting site visits. All in all, this research seeks to understand the role that this minority played in the establishment of Polish modernism in Gdynia’s built environment which has been largely overlooked.
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Is that Ruean Thai facing extinction? Despite this, traditional Thai accommodation represents Thainess as Thai people believe. Yet it is rarely found, particularly in Bangkok's capital city. Ruean Thai seems obsolete, unnecessary, and complicated design from a modern perspective. Some traditional Thai houses still exist, but many are old and neglected and will devalue over time. How has traditional Thai housing been devalued? Modernization is undoubtedly one factor that influences the alteration of Thai residential design. Conversely, what if it began before modernization after the twentieth century?
Between the 15th and 19th centuries, there was extensive Western colonization across the world. Colonization happened during the Ayutthaya period, from 1350 to 1765, until the relocation of the capital city to Bangkok from 1765 to 1930. The introduction of Western culture in Siam/Thailand began in 1517, establishing Ayutthaya's first trading contact with western nations. As a result, westernization had a substantial role in Siam's development and transformation in every field, including the Thai domestic sector. By influencing Culture, Political, Christian religion, new constructions, and materials from the other side of the world into Ayutthaya. The hypothesis of the extinction of Ruean Thai is not only about westernization but also the consideration of the Siam political and social aspects. The transition from Feudalism in Ayutthaya (1350-1868) to before the beginning of democracy (1868-1934) is crucial to understanding how feudalism and patriarchy caused a shift and devaluation in traditional dwelling identity? During the colonial period, how did political and social issues influence the designs of traditional Thai households in terms of architectural orientation and ornamentation vocabulary? What impact does the decline of feudalism and the more equality society has on building orientation?
Towards investigating the Ruean Thai extinction process in the context of Thailand's political history, this thesis also explores and analyses the transformation between three different Thai housing characteristics. Namely Thub Kwan Royal Residence (1911), The House on Sathorn (1899), and Baan Na Navee (1887). In order to examine which internal or external factors in which period directly affected the alteration of Ruean Thai.
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The research looks at the role of architecture education in the female architects practising between 1930 and 1972 in Poland. It investigates not contested women's contribution to architecture development, as they are unquestionably underexplored and underappreciated. Women's participation in the construction of Polish cities remains a blank page in the literature, with only a few names of female architects appearing infrequently. This paper aims to track down female architects working and those unnoticed in the descriptions, to identify the reasons for and differences in the architectural education of people in Poland during the chosen time.
More specifically, the research investigates the beginnings of the "wives' school" (Szkoła żon) dates to 1927, established by architect Władysław Jastrzębski and architect Aleksander Kapuściński and Dr. architect Mieczysław Popiel, that was primely called “Female Architectural Courses” (Żeńskie Kursy Architektoniczne). This incongruous name came from the focus of female education on being architects' wives and drafting technicians working in their studios. In 1960 the name of the school was changed to the Stanislaw Noakowski State School of Architecture (Żeńskie Liceum Architektury im. Stanisława Noakowskiego). Since 1970 the school has had a co-educational character and function as a technical High School of construction engineering and architecture (technikum Architektoniczno – Budowlane), graduating with a Building Technician title.
In post-war Poland, women were educated not only as architects but also as housewives according to 20th-century standard, so-called "Mother Pole" (Matka Polka) – family-focused, musical, talented in painting and interior design. Therefore, the curriculum included building-related subjects and those enriching "sensitivity" and "imagination" such as "The Sunlight in Architecture" or "Musicology". The original idea was to organise during design classes. The pieces performed were, of course, related to the theme of the architectural project.
In the pre-war period, the school was completed by 150 - 200 female graduates , obtaining the title of architectural technician, not an architect, which prevented them from potentially starting their businesses, building projects, or signing plans. Their only position opportunity was to work as an assistant to an architect or drafter. There is no documentation of their later fates, as nobody recorded and stored data about technicians. Many remained housewives: others worked in architectural offices, building men's world dreams.
The school was developing very dynamically due to the highly qualified staff members recruited from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. The teachers - architects - were male as architecture was considered a male department. It is worth noticing that no female teacher from the early years of school activity appears in the data record. However, due to this dependence, some graduates met their future husbands, the architects, through an organised social event as dances and games with the students from the University, forming architectural tandems, which enabled them to work in the creative process of architecture.
The paper traces female graduates, their faiths, historical circumstances, and stereotypes entering post-school life, elaborating on the dynamics between the "husbands" and "wives" who formed architectural teams between 1930 and 1970.
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During the 1970s in New York, queer people of color consolidated a queer subculture commonly known as ballroom as a response to spatial and social oppression. At a time when problems such as the spread of AIDS, homelessness, drug abuse, and prostitution were heavily portrayed as inherently related to the queer community, trans people of color were specifically and disproportionately affected by this political climate. In combination with the lack of security they faced in public spaces, this community was forced to use ballrooms to shape their own places of encounter away from the public eye. Drag shows became an escape and a support system through the creation of Houses, intangible structures of kinship, that hosted the grad shows and occasionally provided physical shelter to queer homeless teenagers. However, beyond the hidden ballrooms, part of this community remained in the public eye appropriating parks, piers, and whole streets in unconventional ways. The informality, and often illegality, of these ephemeral spaces resulted in a lack of documentation of the presence of this community in urban and architectural systems and their relation to the city as a whole. Consequently, there is a missing piece in both black and queer history and their relationship to the built environment. This historical research uses the work of queer theorists of the 20th century such as George Chauncey and Laud Humphreys, whose discourse focuses almost exclusively on gay white men, to expand the narrative to transgender women of color. Additionally, with the support of historical photographic material, such as the work of Chantal Regnault and Leonard Fink, it analyzes how this community related to public space and how it shaped discretely the urban uses of Manhattan. It exposes the duality of the queer public space, on one hand, related to the secrecy of ballroom, and on the other, to the public development of queer life. It explains how these two realities existed in the city simultaneously and intertwined. ... Read more

Spaces are often tied to either implicit or explicit gender biases. For centuries, in both the Netherland’s and the USA's history, the public realm was envisioned as a space for men while the domestic spaces of a home were predominantly associated with women. However, at the turn of the twentieth century, this dichotomy began to be challenged. Due to the demands of World War I, women started occupying a more tangible portion of the paid workforce. Additionally, with the rights won through the women’s suffrage movement they became a relevant patron of architecture as well, in their fight for living independently from their families or male partners. With the rise of this so-called pink-collar working class, a much needed housing typology finally began to develop. It provided living arrangements for independent women without the strict rules and regulations of a “Young Women’s Home” , an all women housing arrangement where symbolic house mothers raised their daughters in the traditional ideas of women and domesticity. From Hull House, founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1889, to Het Nieuwe Huis, built in 1928 Amsterdam, the Netherlands, there is a clear exchange of profound thoughts from influential women, joined together over the fight for global peace and women’s rights of that period. Feminist activists such as Aletta H. Jacobs, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Jane Addams all contributed largely to the American-Dutch intellectual pipeline that made many of these changes come to fruition, working tirelessly to promote women's evolving role in society.

Dwelling design was a place defined by its relationship to domesticity, but these spaces had to adapt to the paradigm shift brought about in the early 1900s. This research paper investigates the effect these women and their activism had on the USA’s and the Netherlands’ dwelling architecture, focusing on the impact that single women had on the spatial and programmatic aspects of housing. This study is based on compiled plans and images of both Hull House and Het Nieuwe Huis, literary research from Dutch and USA newspapers, and letters sent between Jacobs, Gilman, and Addams. Additionally, through contemporary architectural and gender theorists, these ideological drivers and how they manifest themselves in the architecture become clear. This discussion also identifies how designing for women altered the traditional expectations of women in the public realm and the way they were viewed in society. It solidifies social values into the built environment and in order to design consciously and considerately, for contemporary as well as future use, it’s crucial to understand how societal movements have altered design in the past so that one can predict the requirements of the next generation of architecture and the people who inhabit it. ... Read more

The outcomes of the recently published research Onafhankelijkheid, Dekolonisatie, Geweld en Oorlog in Indonesië, 1945-1950 unveil the practices of violent Dutch armed forces during the Indonesian National Revolution and colonial period. These new revelations prove that there is still a lot to learn about the complex social systems of different ethnicities, classes and genders in the former Dutch East Indies during the colonisation. In the early 19th century, the Netherlands colonised the former Dutch East Indies (now the Republic of Indonesia). Dutch families and individuals inhabited the former Dutch East Indies from colonisation until the Indonesian National Revolution. With the introduction of the Kodak camera for private use at the end of the 19th century, family life in the former Dutch Indies was choreographed, captured and documented through photographs. The galleries of the family homes, where domestic scenes are enlivened in the comfortable shelter by walls on three sides of the outside room, are often the backdrop of these photographs. Accordingly, “Captured on the Gallery” examines how Dutch and Indonesian women were portrayed on these galleries at the beginning of the 20th century. An image analysis based on preserved pictures by the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam provides insights into the gallery’s spatial features and how these concerned Dutch and Indonesian women. As a result of close examination, galleries can be considered a befitting place for the daily practices of both Dutch and Indonesian women. This result appertains to the gallery’s liminality that establishes a safe transitional space between indoors and outdoors. This liminal space allows women to simultaneously perform domestic work and connect with their surroundings. Moreover, pictures of the galleries prove that boundaries between Dutch families and their Indonesian domestic workers could dissolve and become explicitly pertinent. Altogether, the results of this research shed light on the ethnical, social and economic differences between Dutch and Indonesian women in the former Dutch East Indies. ... Read more

Struggles to end violence against women were at the core of activity of Latin American feminist movements in the 1970s and 1980s. In the rapidly transforming cities facing the process of hyper-urbanisation, the problem of street harassment, sexual abuse, and other forms of violence against women in public spaces escalated. Increasing social segregation and isolation, enhanced by new spatial planning and architectural typologies, adversely affected safety. In those enormous cities, women found opportunities to denounce the shared experience of violence through new forms of protest, organised and united. Since 1981, feminists from Latin America were building solidarity in the struggles to end violence against women at the regular meetings, Encuentros. One of the most relevant outcomes of those meetings was the novel idea of establishing the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in 1981, which was later recognized by countries around the world. Demonstrations on the 25th of November, which followed that event, united masses of people in public protests. Through these and other demonstrations, women continued to gradually appropriate public space - following the way which was earlier marked by a movement from the 1970s, Las Madres. With the evolution of their presence in the city, feminists were able to reach out to the public. The multifaceted activism of women in the cities through protests, gatherings, performances, and press publications was significant for influencing the legislation and the social mentality.

This research traces from a historical perspective how women denounced violence and fought for their safety in the Latin American cities in the 1970s and 1980s. It recognizes how women discussed, condemned, and opposed patriarchal violence, looking at the feminist press articles and illustrations, photographs and audio-visual materials from the strikes and gatherings, interviews with the protagonists of the demonstrations, as well as previous research on the history of Latin American feminist movements and their fight for the right to the city. The study tackles the question of the role of the urban context in those struggles. Which were the threads of hyper-urbanisation and how did they affect women? What role has the appropriation of public space played for the feminist movements in creating new forms of protest, gaining exposure, and establishing social significance? My claim is that the new reality of rapidly transforming cities had a significant and complex influence on the struggles to end violence against women. On one hand, the patriarchal modes of hyper-urbanisation exacerbated the problem, while on the other, cities created the opportunity to act on a larger scale, in an organised way and made women’s struggles to end violence visible to the public.

Latin American feminist movements of the 1970s and 1980s shifted global understanding of violence against women and girls. They mobilized a strong and diverse network that was pioneering in the large-scale, international mobilization in the fight for human rights. Through multi-form activism against patriarchal violence, they not only inspired changes locally but also influenced women in other parts of the world.
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This paper analyzes the case study of the artwork A-Portable (2001) by Joep Van Lieshout commissioned by the organization for abortion rights Women on Waves (WoW), as a pioneering example of art activism. When abortion was considered a controversial topic in society, this work has successfully contributed to sharing public awareness about the risks of illegal unsafe abortions performed in countries in which this medical practice was not allowed by the government. This abortion clinic inside a shipping container sailed the ocean in several sea campaigns, and later made its debut in the art world, such as in the Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2001. The A-Portable is not a stand-alone example in the history of feminism, and since the 19th century with the suffragist movements, art has been frequently used as a medium in feminist history. Other examples of art activism are mentioned in the paper, such as the public performance of the feminist Serbian artist Tanja Ostojić at the same Venice Biennale, and the more recent research of the American architect and author Lori Brown, who in 2013 published the book “Contested Spaces”, about improving the architectural features of abortion clinics for women’s wellbeing.

The following research takes into consideration several sources regarding the history of abortion rights and the action of WoW, to contextualize and explain the influence of art in the women’s emancipation process. Moreover, through an interview with Joep Van Lieshout, the artist’s point of view has also been crucial to find a complete answer to the research question. The final findings will demonstrate that art has always been a powerful media used by politics, and in this case, has created an opportunity for WoW to make a change in the public and private spheres. In the public, it served to stimulate people’s empathy around the topic of legal abortion, while in the private it created a safe space and a shelter from the violent opposition movements, finding physical and psychological help while performing this delicate medical procedure.
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After World War II, various architectural theories were proposed for urban development in order to tackle the societal issues and housing issues arising from the post-war trauma. ‘Streets-in-the-sky’, proposed by the English architects Alison and Peter Smithson in 1952, was one of the concepts that emerged in the post-war era and advocated the core values of human association and identity in the city. The Smithsons conceived the concept as a solution to the lack of public space on ground level due to the proliferation of automobiles, envisaging a vibrant uplifted public life. Hence, the notion gained critical acclaim in the early 1960s since it was also a response to the rigid urban planning of CIAM, prioritized community as a critical fragment in design and no long treated human as functioning machines. Nevertheless, the notion received increasingly negative feedback as more housing following this concept was built and gradually became viewed as a castle in the air. Scholars and the public no longer perceived the idea as a feasible design solution for the society. This thesis will deconstruct the concept through historical and socio-political lenses using three reference projects: Golden Lane Competition, Park Hill Estate and Robin Hood Gardens. The thesis investigates also the external and internal forces that turned ‘streets-in-the-sky’ into a castle in the air. The paper would be divided into three parts to understand the development and decline of the notion. What were the driving forces that fostered the formulation of ‘streets-in-the-sky’? How did architects implement this architectural theory into practical usage? What were the factors that led to negative public perception of the notion? Although the original ideas were not able to materialize as perfectly as expected in the 1960s, the urban values and historical values are inherited and engender an immense impact to later city development as vertical connection cores and elevated walkways re-appeared in metropolises in the recent decades. ... Read more

The research proposes a dialectical re-reading of the Romanian Communist housing as a gendered control mechanism. Therefore, the thesis concentrates on Berceni neighbourhood between 1977 and 1989 as a case study for a larger urban phenomenon under the late Romanian Communist Regime (1965-1989). In this context, the research juxtaposes the Marxist ideologies on women's emancipation (proliferated throughout the Eastern Block) with the experiences of female inhabitants in Berceni. This contextualisation is crucial, given that response to women's issues was state-enforced and disseminated top-down. In aiding with a broader political and economic agenda, state policy dictated that women should be liberated from home duties (the private sphere) and be transposed into productive members of the society (the public sphere). Given that decision making was assigned to a predominantly male political elite, the state disregarded the family resources necessary to fulfil tasks historically associated with womanhood. Therefore, Socialist Women became just as tied to domesticity as their predecessors. What changed was that they were now forcefully assigned a dual character: an aseptic asexual public persona of state worker along the already existing sexualised domestic one. In understanding the link between women and domesticity, the research confronts the implications of state propaganda on the Lived Experience identified in the stories of some of the women inhabitants of 1977-89 Berceni. Among other points, the paper highlights women's isolation, over-working and distrust as some of the aftermaths of this clash between ideology and context. ... Read more