Architectural Theory & Gender Studies
by
1 August, 2024

SOFA Bookclub 2024.
Comprising women from all architectural backgrounds, from students to architects with 20 years experience, researchers, interior designers and landscape architects, SOFA has 30-40 members each season and runs small groups and SOFA salons. Topics are chosen by the group leaders, here is the text list for Book Club : Architectural Theory & Gender Studies, one of five learning groups that ran in the first half of 2024.
Duality of Domesticity and Women Architects – Autumn 2023
This study began with the discovery of women who graduated from architecture schools in the mid- to late- 20th century and went on to work as employees of housing corporations or as professors at domestic science colleges. Starting from the premise that the spatial and sexual separation of domesticity and space is one of the main characteristics of modernity, the study was designed to critically reflect on contemporary architecture based on the concept of domesticity.
We examined at first the ways in which female identity is constructed and deployed spatially, then the ways in which domesticity is expressed in contemporary architecture and the career paths of female architects, focusing on Anglo-American Europe. Finally, we explored the ways in which contemporary architecture in Korea embraces domesticity, using the kitchen as an example. The sessions were entitled.
- Three Waves of Feminism and Women’s Theory
- Two Aspects of Private Life and Domesticity
- Dwelling in Contemporary Architectural Movements
- Women Architects and Home Improvement
- Domesticity, Women in Korean Architecture and ?
Patriarchal Myths and Contemporary Korean Architecture – Spring 2024
This study questions the resonance between the habit of imagining Koreanness in architecture as an empty space or courtyard, and the exclusion of women from Korean architectural history and theory. It takes the 1960s and 70s, the formative years of modern architecture, as a starting point for discussing Koreanness in architecture.
In the context of the uneasy coexistence of radical modernisation and the production of tradition, we point to the functions assigned to women as producers. Then by reading primary sources such as magazines and literature published at the time to discuss the intersection of Koreanness and femininity. The sessions are organised around the following themes.
- Colonial Male Anxiety
- Women as Producers 01 – Population, Family Care
- Women as Producers 02 – Tradition, Craft and Decoration
- The Myth of Empty Space
- Making Mother Architects