Research On Major Topics Of Western Feminist Architectural Theories

In the 1960s-70s, modern architecture was facing a serious development crisis, whilst the second wave of feminist movement was in its climax, shaking almost the whole world. Under such a situation, a new branch of architectural theory, which might be named "Feminist Architecture", was emerging from traditional architectural domain. It's the object of this research.Receiving influence from several outside disciplines, like Sociology, Philosophy, and Anthropology, Feminist Architecture encompasses a large scope of research interests, which can hardly be covered in a single thesis. Therefore, several major topics were chosen for further studies, including:female architects, feminist architectural design, feminist architectural education, women and housing, women and public architecture, and women and city security. Among them, the former three focusing on surveying the discipline of architecture from a feminist perspective, and the latter three the built environment, they constitute the first and second major parts of the thesis respectively.In the first part, under the sub-theme of female architects, topics of construction of female architects'history, acknowledgement of their professional contribution and criticizing their living situations are thoroughly discussed. Under the sub-theme of feminist architectural design, a new form of architecture based on feminine shapes and feminine principles, and a new design approach comprised of user deep participation, presentation responding to users'understanding, equal relationship with clients and constructors, are proposed. As to feminist architectural education, masculine rationality of traditional architectural education has been explicitly criticized, and feminist architectural education emphasizes service learning, share of authority, collaboration, and ethical values.In the second part, concerning women and housing, two approaches aiming at solving the conflict between household and work have been introduced, which are socialization of household, and combination of housing and working places; housing problems of female disadvantaged, such as single mothers, are concerned as well. As to women and public architecture, problems of existing public architecture, maternity hospital as a case, are mainly due to insufficient consideration of women's feelings and needs. While newly created public architecture by/for women, Women's Building as a case, are valued for helping to create a women's culture. As to women and city security, both security in public space and private space are underlined, for the former, pornographic urban streetscape should be alerted, for the latter, women's shelters are introduced as a way out.Based on the analysis of western feminist architectural theories and practices, the last conclusion part proposed some suggestions for Chinese paralleling studies, including:to rethink the situation of female architects, to supplement current architectural practices by feminist architecture and feminist architectural design, to reform traditional Chinese architectural education, to solve the conflicts between housing and working on a social level, and care about female disadvantaged concerning housing, to improve existing public architecture to meet women's needs, and develop women's space, last but not least, to prevent pornographic cityscape, as well as to build good-quality women's shelters for battered women in China.