Feminist methodology in practice and pedagogy

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationships between architectural pedagogy and practice within the context of feminist methodologies from the point of view of a student. If the condition of the profession reflects the (changing) reality, I enquire what implications it consequentially has on (architectural) education. By problematising the personal-political circumstances which triggered the emergence and disappearance of feminist architecture cooperative Matrix, operating between the 1980s and 1990s in London, and their methodology in professional practice and education, particularly the Women into Architecture and Building access course, this work reflects on the mutual influences between the role of a teacher and the role of the architect in their approach. Process-oriented practice and thinking-by-doing are put forward as key elements of Matrix’s radically feminist methodology. Through the use of testimonies of practitioners, teachers and students, their writings, lecture recordings and archival material, links between engaged pedagogy and a participatory design process are analysed. The reasons for, and implications of, a feminist approach to design and user involvement are situated within the larger socio-economic and political context to enquire how historical analysis of the conditions within which the production of architecture becomes a mutually-empowering practice can be translated into contemporary circumstances.