Neighbours: Lectures on History & Theory of Architecture Vol.1. Lecture 4 / TPOD, ACHT, THEMA, HITAM

Lecture 4 : 'Public domesticities' by Fernanda Canales ( Harvard GSD)

In this lecture Fernanda Canales will speak about her research titled “If Women Made Cities” focused on the collective nature of houses and on projects that have intended to blur three main divisions: the interior and the exterior; the rural and the urban; and life and work. The lecture comprises the work done by women when they got actively involved in architecture in the second half of the 19^th century as domestic scientists, and when they entered the architectural profession at the beginning of the 20^th century and initiated projects that rejected building a world fragmented in spheres. This research highlights utopian proposals —from domestic labor free cities and Wifeless neighborhoods, to Social Parentage, Euthenics (the science of controllable environment) and One-kitchen buildings— to cooperative communities and kitchens that reduce by half the number of steps required to cook a meal. The focus is placed on the redefinition of the concepts of ownership, labor, family and the production of space. It explains women´s contributions to the built environment during the past 180 years that can be synthesized as a fight against spaces that promote segregation.

A lecture series by invited speakers in the field of History and Theory of Architecture organised jointly by Pier Vittorio Aureli (TPOD), Christophe van Gerrewey (ACHT), Sarah Nichols (THEMA), Alfredo Thiermann (HITAM) of the EDAR School.