Take two essential household appliances and stick them together, and what do you get? This entry to the Greener Gadgets Design competition: the Washup washing machine-toilet by Sevin Coskun. With a space-saving design that includes graywater recycling, the wall-mounted Washup stores water used in the washer in the toilet, to be reused for flushing. As the washer is located above the toilet, loading can be completed without awkward back bending. Another plus? The Washup’s positive message about graywater recycling, which is usually not so visible.http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/integrated-washing-machine-toilet.html

Take two essential household appliances and stick them together, and what do you get? This entry to the Greener Gadgets Design competition: the Washup washing machine-toilet by Sevin Coskun. With a space-saving design that includes graywater recycling, the wall-mounted Washup stores water used in the washer in the toilet, to be reused for flushing. As the washer is located above the toilet, loading can be completed without awkward back bending. Another plus? The Washup’s positive message about graywater recycling, which is usually not so visible.

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/integrated-washing-machine-toilet.html

The Babayagas’ house, a feminist alternative to old people’s homes, opens in Paris

“

Women’s lives are profoundly affected by the design and use of public spaces and buildings, transportation systems, neighbourhoods, and housing.
Discriminatory laws, governmental regulations, cultural attitudes, informal practices, and lack of awareness by professionals have created conditions which reflect and reinforce women’s second-class status.”

Principles of Safer Cities Work:

The City of Montreal, a pioneer in safer cities work, developed these Six Principles of Urban Planning for Safe Cities, which serve as a useful reference point in evaluating urban planning:

Principle 1: Know where you are and where you are going. Signposting.

Principle 2: See and be seen. Visibility.

Principle 3: Hear and be heard. The presence of people.

Principle 4: Be able to escape and get help. Formal surveillance and access to help.

Principle 5: Live in a clean and friendly environment. Spatial design and maintenance.

Principle 6: Act together. Community participation.

Gender, Space, Architecture: An interdisciplinary Introduction by Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner & Iain Borden.

http://www.redmujer.org.ar/pdf_publicaciones/art_18.pdf

“
The appropriation and use of space are political acts. The kinds of spaces we have, don’t have or are denied access to can empower us or render us powerless. Spaces can enhance or restrict, nurture or impoverish. We must demand the right to architectural settings which support the essential needs of all women.
Rendell J., Penner B. and Borden I., Gender Space Architecture - An interdisciplinary introduction, 2000.  
Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: NikitasCountry: Cyprus View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Nikitas
Country: Cyprus

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: PrastioCountry: Cyprus View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Prastio
Country: Cyprus

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: SilluraCountry: Cyprus View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Sillura
Country: Cyprus

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: KarpasiaCountry: Cyprus View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Karpasia
Country: Cyprus

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: MelundaCountry: Cyprus View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Melunda
Country: Cyprus

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: VasilyaCountry: Cyprus View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Vasilya
Country: Cyprus

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: TemplosCountry: Cyprus View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Templos
Country: Cyprus

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse Village Name: GambiliCountry: Cyprus  View high resolution

Target: Men exclusive coffeehouse

Village Name: Gambili
Country: Cyprus 

Spaces..

Masculine & Feminine spaces

Spaces within our built environment are structured by a system of gendered dominance. Reproduced by both material and non-material aspects of society, spaces exhibit biases towards one or another sex. 

Large supermarkets, shopping malls and private residences are categorized as feminine spaces, where sports stadiums, bars and the offices of white collar labor have been considered as masculine spaces.

In another words, any domestic realm refers to a feminine space while places of action and/or public meeting are considered as the masculine ones.  

 

 While designing and planning, gender should be considered as a category to examine the order and the experience of the habitation. Gendered binaries should be aimed to be unsettled in the public spaces such as streets, public toilets, parks, transportation by raising questions about the ways in which ideas of private-public, respectability-unrespectability, safety-violence, rational-risky are reflected in the dictate of the public space and the discourses of gendered citizenship. 

Rosa Luxemburg Platz is a tube station in Berlin, named after a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist woman, Rosa Luxemburg. When I saw the name of the tube station, it reminded me of the speech of an activist woman at the 3rd International Women’s Conference: Toward Cities for Women held in Diyarbakir, March 2011. She mentioned that most open spaces in Turkey such as streets, squares, avenues, parks are named after men. Men who ruled the nation, fought for their country or invented something.. Since heroism evokes masculinity in most cultures, under the patriarchal rule, a public location should be named after such man. Names of those men to create heroic and masculine public spaces..   On top of that, some of those places are named after flowers rather than an actual women character to evoke ‘femininity’, and balance the masculinity and femininity of a neighborhood.   Rosa Luxemburg Platz gave me a series of contemplations as a public space because it was named after a revolutionist woman, who had strong arguments against the existing order of this world. At first it seemed unusual but clearly promising to me because I believe, such ‘small details’ can help women raise confidence while experiencing such public spaces. photo: Zerrin Kabaoglu - CSA Berlin trip Oct 2011 View high resolution

Rosa Luxemburg Platz is a tube station in Berlin, named after a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist woman, Rosa Luxemburg.

When I saw the name of the tube station, it reminded me of the speech of an activist woman at the 3rd International Women’s Conference: Toward Cities for Women held in Diyarbakir, March 2011.

She mentioned that most open spaces in Turkey such as streets, squares, avenues, parks are named after men. Men who ruled the nation, fought for their country or invented something.. Since heroism evokes masculinity in most cultures, under the patriarchal rule, a public location should be named after such man. Names of those men to create heroic and masculine public spaces..  

On top of that, some of those places are named after flowers rather than an actual women character to evoke ‘femininity’, and balance the masculinity and femininity of a neighborhood.  

Rosa Luxemburg Platz gave me a series of contemplations as a public space because it was named after a revolutionist woman, who had strong arguments against the existing order of this world.

At first it seemed unusual but clearly promising to me because I believe, such ‘small details’ can help women raise confidence while experiencing such public spaces.

photo: Zerrin Kabaoglu - CSA Berlin trip Oct 2011

Three Dimensions of Gender Equity while planning

Dimension 1 / Territory-City
The scale of urban planning:

1. How cities and territories are planned from a gender perspective?

2. What elements are incorporated in projects developed from feminist theory and/or from a gender perspective?

3. What actions are necessary to attain inclusive planning?



Dimension 2 / Neighborhood
The neighborhood level:

1. How should neighborhood planning include people’s experiences?

2. How daily-life is included in the design of environments?

3. What aspects have been incorporated in the reform and rehabilitation of neighborhoods from a gender perspective?

4. How does feminism contribute to urban analyses?


Dimension 3 / Housing-Public Spaces
The public and the private spaces:

1. What uses favour or should favour public and private spaces designed from a gender perspective?

2. What issues should be considered when planning for equal access to public spaces, facilities and housing?

3. How people use spaces based on their experiences and needs?

4. Are spaces tailored to the needs of diverse population?