Prepared by:

Rana Faqir M. Aslam

Introduction to the EditorMadhavi 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 in the home.

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

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.• 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 house.

Thank You!

Rana Faqir M. Aslam(Ph. D. Scholar)