Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Feminism in Architecture


So I was in Chicago over Thanksgiving break and saw this building. I asked my friend what building it was and she told me it was designed by a feminist architect who had wanted to design a sky scraper that incorporated a more feminine form because skyscrapers are considered phallic and masculine. Now I'm not sure if the intent of a skyscraper is to be a phallic representation or merely an efficient structure for big cities, but I thought this was applicable to class. It shows a concrete way in which to incorporate feminine characteristics to previously patriarchal (literal) structures. I thought this was a cool idea and it was something that I'd never even thought about before (maybe because I'm not an architect) but it does seem that there are a lot of masculine traits in architecture and it is definitely arguable that men have dictated a lot of our physical world as well as intellectual, political, and philosophical.

2 comments:

  1. Where in Chicago? Very cool! Thanks for posting this.

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  2. I think it was on Michigan ave in the city, not sure exactly though, i'm not too familiar with the city

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