Counter-planning from the kitchen: for a feminist critique of type
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Giudici1
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1080/13602365.2018.1513417
- Title of journal
- The Journal of Architecture
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 1203
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 7-8
- ISSN
- 1466-4410
- Open access status
- Exception within 3 months of publication
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602365.2018.1513417
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This article investigates the construction of modern domestic space as a device for the production of subjectivity, suggesting that the subdivision of the house in functionally defined rooms is part of a larger biopolitical project to create a normalized family. Today this family model seems to be in crisis, and the article analyzes the ways contemporary architects in three different contexts tackle this shifting relationship between domestic types and gender subjectivity.
Notwithstanding the richness of the current debate on the social construction of gender, there is little research on the way in which space, and more specifically architectural projects, contribute to this process. Beatriz Colomina and Paul B. Preciado’s work remains seminal in the field, but there is still much research to be done when it comes to understanding the logic of the place that more than any other shapes gender roles: the house.
This essay uses categories and concepts developed by materialist feminism to look at the house not as a retreat but rather as a place of labour. The introduction of the concept of ‘type’ in domestic architecture is therefore analyzed in the essay as the quintessential way in which gender roles are, literally, typified – embodied, enacted, and naturalized.
This is a peer-reviewed article that addresses three main issues – and, therefore, three main audiences. On the one hand, it is relevant to contemporary feminist discourse and the discussion of domestic space as a terrain of social struggle. On the other, feminist theory is here used to build a new understanding of the concept of ‘type’ as a device geared towards the production of specific subjects. Lastly, the essay discusses contemporary architectural projects, and is therefore ultimately directed to all designers who are committed to innovation in the project of domestic space.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
