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Prepared by:

Rana Faqir M. Aslam


Introduction to the Editor
Madhavi Desai
• Bachelors in Architecture from the School of
Architecture, Ahmedabad, (1974)
• Masters in Architecture from the University of
Texas, Austin, USA (1978).
• An architectural practice under the studio name
"ARCHICRAFTS" in Ahmedabad since 1981.
• An adjunct faculty at the School of Architecture,
CEPT since 1987.
• She had a Senior Research Fellowship of the Indian
Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi
(1989 - 1991).
• A Visiting Research Fellowship at the Aga Khan
Program for Islamic Architecture in MIT, USA
(1994).
• She was a Council Member of the Indian Institute of
Architects (1991 - 1994).
• Besides two books, she has published several
articles and has presented papers at seminars, in
India and abroad.
Background
•Mothers are believed to be the homemakers without
any claim to the house.
•Disowning of women is a common practice in our
society. This mind set starts right from the childhood
when the girls are reminded of their transitory place at
their natal home.
•There is no psychological space for girls in their
father’s home. They are called the ‘paraya dhan’ .
•She is considered as an outsider at in-law’s house.
•First belong to father and then to husband.
Introduction
•The book is a discussion on the role of women as
consumers and creators or designers of the built
environment in India and South Asia.
•The editor has brought the feminist consciousness to
the built environment.
•It is a collection of eleven essays written by different
architects and teachers related to this profession
directly or indirectly.
•Most of these essays were initially presented as
papers at a ‘national symposium on ‘Gender and the
Built Environment’ held at Ahmadabad in 2002.
Thematic concerns
•The appropriation of space is a political act and that
therefore, access to space is fundamentally related to
status and power.
•Spatial arrangements in a society reflect and
reinforce the nature of gender, race, caste and class
relations. At various levels, from the city to the
dwelling, the ideals and reality of the relationship
between men and women is expressed in built form.
•Cultural rules govern the use of space and codes
regulate behavior between genders. Women do not
have enough space in the built environment.
Thematic concerns
•A space that does not support gender equality is
a gendered space.
•Many of our public spaces are gendered, because
women often feel unwelcome or have to tolerate
some form of harassment in many of these places.
Many homes have separate spaces for women and
men e.g. ‘zanana’ ‘mardana’.
•To add insult to the injury, even by
acknowledging a lack of safety women risk
inviting more ‘restrictions and control’ from our
patriarchal families.
Public places in the use of men.
Public places in the use of men.
•Men taking more space than women.
•Space not available to them in mosques and temples.
•They get space in plazas and shopping malls only
during shopping.
•At the bus stop waiting for the bus.
•No facilities of toilets for women. Toilets for women
should be double in number than that of men, it’s due to
their physical and biological needs.
•Men urinating in the streets, still usurping women’s
space.
Public places in the use of men.
•Women in public spaces are always seen doing some kind of
a work…..
•If seen loitering or just sitting at public places, they are
regarded as public women – prostitutes.
•Only a limited number of public places are available to
women where they can feel comfortable, like ‘Pakka Ghat’ in
Mirzapur, Uttar Pardesh, women can take bath in public place
away from the gazes of men.
A woman’s place (so they say) is
A woman’s place (so they say) is
in the home.
•After work, women are supposed to return to the place
where they are supposed to belong (home).
•At home even they do not enjoy leisure time, keep working
most of the time.
•An architectural study in Nepal indicates that the homes
with less gender disparity have more comfortable rooms as
compared with those where this disparity is well marked.
•Kitchen where only used by women is built in the rear of
the house away from the living rooms. On the other hand
where the couple cooks food, it’s near the living room.
Travelling
•The women travelling by
trains going to and from
their work face a lot of
problems especially at
night times.
•The security consists of
men who themselves are a
danger for women. Travelling
•There had been assaults
on women travelling in
women’s compartments at
night.
Women
construction
workers
Women construction workers
•The Self Employed Women’s Organization (SEWA) is an
organization based on women members in the informal sector
with a total membership of over 2,15,000 self- employed women.
•Naya Ghar is SEWA’s post-earthquake shelter reconstruction
program.
•SEWA worked towards enabling women to own their own
homes. In many ways, embarking on reconstruction on such a
large scale was a first for SEWA on many fronts. The initial
demand for houses from earthquake affected districts of Kutch,
Surendranagar And Patan was in the range of 40,000 houses.
Architectural
Education in
India
Architectural Education in India
•Desperate need of major curriculum reforms, as the present
curriculum is the legacy of British colonialism, producing
only skill based (draftsman like) architects.
•The absence of a contextual approach towards the design
education and practice remain alien and unimportant to the
professional architect or planner.
•About 50 to 60 % of the students of architecture in India are
women, and by default they are not gender conscious,
because majority of them have internalized patriarchal values.
Architectural Education in India
•At present no aspect of human life has remained untouched by the
issues and demands of the women’ movement and women’s
studies.
•Almost all disciplines (law, health, religion, social sciences,
literature) have undergone reviewing and reconstruction process to
become inculcate gender conscious in all their works.
•The book also explores the possibilities of including the gender
consciousness in the architectural education.
•It is intended to suggest short term interventions in the existing
programmes and long term reforms in the curriculum.
Women and Architecture
•The book explores the critical relationship between
the dwelling form and the status of women.
•The rural dwellings were divided into ‘zanana’ and
‘mardana’ territories , the front occupied by men
and the rear by women.
•The bungalow of the British rulers brought new
concepts of dwellings, but at the same time
represented the social and political divide between
the rulers and the masses.
Women and Architecture
•The strong nationalistic sentiments brought about a
revivalism in architecture, representing more
regional life style of the people.
•The facades of the houses were more indigenized
and more motifs from Hindu and Islamic
architecture were brought to Bungalow – sloping
overhangs, arches, and decorative cement jalis
•A courtyard introduced to bring joint family
gendered division.
Women and Architecture
•Separate washrooms for menstruating women were
built as they were considered impure.
•However the traditional gendered segregation
becomes difficult to maintain in the modern house.
•The socio-economic changes caused the breakdown
in gender barriers.
•By the 1970 nuclear family structure influenced the
construction of homes according to the family
needs.
Women and Architecture
•Now women have become more central figures.
•Kitchen has come nearer to the living rooms and an
important part of the structure.
•Spacious T.V. lounge is built, mostly used by the
house-wife during leisure hours.
•Attached baths to the bedrooms indicate closer
companionship in matrimony.
•The change is observed in the architecture, but still
there is need to involve women in consultation
about designing or altering the structure of the
Thank You!

Rana Faqir M. Aslam


(Ph. D. Scholar)

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