Domestic Revolutions and Feminist Cities

The feminist city is a work in progress. Organized by Charles Gwathmey Professor in the Practice Tatiana Bilbao and Senior Critic Annie Barrett, and dedicated to Professor Emerita of Architecture, Urbanism, and American Studies, Dolores Hayden, the symposium will spotlight innovators from Europe, Latin America, and the United States who are reinventing urban design to recognize women’s work and civic participation. On April 9, at 6:30pm, the keynote conversation between Tatiana Bilbao and Dolores Hayden will engage Hayden’s books, The Grand Domestic Revolution (1981) and Redesigning the American Dream (1984). The keynote lecture by Eva Kail, “Fair Shared City: Vienna’s Gender Planning Approach,” will trace how Vienna has led the European Union’s campaigns for gender equity through the construction of sixty pilot projects, including the Frauen-Werk-Stadt housing complex and a new urban district, Aspern Seestadt.
 
On April 10, the panel Building Fair-Shared Cities: Vienna and Barcelona (9:30am), includes, from Vienna, Maria Vassilakou, former deputy mayor, and Elke Krasny, author and curator, in conversation with Anna Puigjaner, architect, and Zaida Muxi, architect and urban designer, both from Barcelona, a city that has expanded definitions of housing to experiment with kitchenless units and created “superblocks” to reclaim streets for pedestrians. Moderated by Emily Abruzzo.

Innovative Infrastructure to Recognize Care Work (11:45am), includes Inés Sánchez de Madariaga, urban designer from Madrid, who will define “mobility of care”; Gabriela Carillo, architect from Mexico City, who will show plans for a cable bus line; and Diana Rodriguez Franco, former Secretary of Women’s Affairs in Bogotá, who will present eleven manzanas del cuidado to support housewives and care workers. Moderated by Ana María Durán Calisto. 

Expanding Feminist Urbanism (2pm) includes Allyx Schiavone, executive director of the Friends Center for Children in New Haven, speaking on free housing for child care educators, along with urban planner Chelina Odbert, who will show an informal settlement in Argentina and discuss the World Bank’s Gender Inclusive guidelines. Urban planner Maria Rosario Jackson, former head of the National Endowment for the Arts, will discuss how to embed feminist initiatives within longer-term projects on labor, housing, health, and civil rights. Moderated by Annie Barrett.

A concluding roundtable, Teaching the Feminist City (3:15pm), honoring Tatiana Bilbao’s ten years at Yale, will include Karolina Czeczek (Yale), Pier Vittorio Aureli (EPFL), Alessandra Cireddu (Technologico de Monterrey), Malkit Shoshan (GSD), and Lori Brown (Syracuse).

The symposium is free and open to the public. In-person and livestream attendance is welcome. Please register here. Domestic Revolutions and Feminist Cities is supported by the J. Irwin Miller Endowment.