Women and Gender in Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design

This interest group critically explores connections between women, gender and built environments in a rich variety of historical and geographical contexts. We nurture a critical discussion about what voices, perspectives, and topics to focus on in historical research, and we intersect questions of gender with other processes of marginalisation and power in spatial practice. Doing so, we aim to explore the ways in which historical perspectives can contribute to creating more socially and ecologically just cities and landscapes for the future.

Through a variety of formats ranging from reading groups to workshops and seminars we discuss how questioning gender prompts us to rethink more fundamentally the traditional methodologies, dominant narratives, and archival structures of historical research on built environments and we explore possibilities for doing research differently. Moreover, we use questions about women and gender as a starting point for questioning the ethical, political and affective implications of historical enquiry and the role, positionality and responsibility of the researcher.

The Interest group is open for anyone –whether you are a specialized in questions of architecture and gender or a curious newcomer to the topic, and no matter at what stage of your working life of affiliation you are, and your geographical location. We nurture a curiosity-driven, trustful and generous forum for everyone who wants to exchange knowledge and ideas, to learn from others and with others.

Our meetings seek to foster dialogue, testing new ideas and stimulate shared thinking about the possibilities to cross-fertilize across different researchers and academic environments who are interested in emerging topics, methods and theories in this research, obstacles, and potentials. We publish a newsletter in which members of the interest group share information about upcoming events, new publications and other information of relevance to the group.