Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
How well do our designed environments- the places and spaces where we live, work, and play- meet our aesthetic and functional needs? Increasingly, the distinction between the spaces considered public and private or work and home is becoming more blurred. As a result, innovative designs are needed to meet the challenges of our ever-changing environment. Our streets, parks, dwellings and tools are designed to a "one-size-fits-all" standard, and the responses of the design community to meet diverse needs have been mixed at best. Design and Feminism offers feminist critiques of these inadequate design standards, and suggest ideas, projects, and programs for change.
The interdisciplinary essays reflect the writers' diverse fields- architecture, planning, industrial and graphic design, and architectural, urban, and design history.
Essays cover such subject as rethinking the American city, graphic design and the urban landscape, working at home, theories of women and design, and a trio of essays on industrial designs. A review essay of the literature in these fields- the first of its kind- rounds out the collection.
Contributors are Amelia Amon, Wendy E. Brawer, Cheryl Buckley, Sue Cavanagh, Alethea Cheng, Roberta M. Feldman, Etain Fitzpatrick, Alice T. Friedman, Dolores Hayden, Ghislaine Hermanuz, Barbara Knecht, Ellen Lupton, Maggie Mahboubian, Francine Monaco, Nancy Perkins, Victoria Rosner, Joan Rothschild, Susana Torre, Lynne Walker, and Leslie Kanes Weismann.
Table of Contents
Feminisms and design : review essay /Joan Rothschild and Victoria Rosner --Expanding the urban design agenda : a critique of the new urbanism /Susana Torre --Claiming women's history in the urban landscape : projects from Los Angeles /Dolores Hayden --Graphic design in the urban landscape /Ellen Lupton --Outgrowing the corner of the kitchen table /Ghislaine Hermanuz --Shifting the paradigm : houses built for women /Alice T. Friedman --Special needs and housing design : myths/realities/opportunities /Barbara Knecht --Made in patriarchy : theories of women and design : a reworking /Cheryl Buckley --On being an industrial designer : rethinking practice --Women designers : making differences /Nancy Perkins --Domestication of space-age technologies /Amelia Amon --Sustainability and the city /Wendy E. Brawer --Participatory design at the grass roots /Roberta M. Feldman --Women's design service : feminist resources for urban environments /Lynne Walker and Sue Cavanagh --Re-designing architectural education : new models for a new century /Leslie Kanes Weisman.