Chronicle of the debate "Gender perspective in residential architecture", which took place on December 15 in Barcelona

A Sostre Cívic we work to promote an alternative model of access to housing based on collective ownership and non-speculation, but we also promote cooperative housing projects by rehabilitating or building from scratch buildings in which to develop this type of project. We are constantly searching ways of understanding architecture that respond to social needs and all the elements surrounding the way we organize ourselves in relation to housing and life. Each year we focus on a specific topic and surround ourselves with people who have reflected on the topic in question. This is what we have done in issues related to care for the elderly or the environmental impact, and this year we wanted to focus on how to incorporate a gender and feminist perspective in architecture, and in our relationships.

So, the past 15 of December took place in Classroom 2 of Col·lectiu Ronda, in Barcelona, ​​the 5th debate around the role of architecture in social and environmental transformation organized by Sostre Cívic. The aim of the meeting was to be accompanied by professionals and experts who helped us understand what it means to develop this gender perspective in residential architecture projects and specifically cooperative housing projects. 

The debate was attended by Roser Casanovas , architect and partner of Col·lectiu Punt 6; Ari Artigas , architect and partner of lacol; Inés Novella , architect and researcher at the R&D+I Observatory of the Polytechnic University of Madrid; and Laura and Teo , partners of the LGTBI cooperative housing project La Morada.

Intersectional feminist perspective to achieve more equitable living spaces 

Architect Roser Casanovas presented the theoretical framework to lay the foundations for the debate and to understand what we mean when we talk about feminist architecture. We talked, for example, about the importance of making visible the different spheres in which the activities that make up life are organized (productive, reproductive, community and personal spheres), and the analysis of how society currently prioritizes the productive sphere, making an unequal distribution of time, space and resources in relation to the other spheres.

It is just an example to make visible that space is not neutral, and how its design perpetuates a model of relationships between people and their environment. Inequalities do not only occur in urban space, but also within private spaces: most homes in the private market are designed following the heteropatriarchal nuclear family model, marking a rigid hierarchy among the people who live there.

Casanovas also stressed the importance of breaking the dichotomy between public and private to avoid giving only the responsibility for care to the private space and taking it off the backs of women, who are currently the ones who take care of them. It is necessary to generate community spaces to share a social responsibility for care, changing both the homes and the environments in which they are built. It is necessary to guarantee not only the right to housing, but also the right to community life, in the city. Guaranteeing dignified lives in a close and suitable environment.

Incorporating the gender perspective in architecture from public administrations

The intervention of the researcher Inés Novella was key to finding out how administrations can work with the feminist perspective in residential architecture regulations. 

Novella shared the different cross-cutting advisory actions in terms of gender that she has carried out at the Valencian Government's Housing Ministry and which range from participation in commissions for the review of regulations or being part of the jury for competitions architecture, up to the creation of different materials and awareness and advice actions. 

Two guides that we share below are particularly noteworthy:  

• Summary of the presentations that will be part of Conferences on gender and housing, held in February 2021. A downloadable and free document in this link. 
• Guide "Projecting the spaces of everyday life. Gender criteria for the design and public procurement of housing”.

Projects that transform

To complete the debate, we also wanted to learn about specific experiences that have a gender perspective as one of their identity values. 

• Women Cohabiting: Feminist housing community promoted by the Punt 6 Collective, and which Roser Casanovas explained to us. 
• Subtract: The architect Ari Artigas, from lacol Arquitectura Cooperativa, presented us with the architectural project of this housing cooperative of 38 coexistence units. 
• La Morada: Laura and Teo, partners and future residents of this feminist and LGTBI cooperative housing project with architectural design also from Lacol, shared with us some details of the project's design and values.

In case you weren't able to join us, or if you want to review some of the moments from the event, below is the full video of the debate ⬇️