In Japan, the architect's profile has changed in the last decades, with a steady increase in women practitioners. Meanwhile, the intersection between gender and architecture remains scarcely explored. This paper aims to show how gender influences the architectural profession by taking as a case study the Gallery IHA Autumn Lectures 2018, a series of lectures by female architects organized and held by women under the theme "exploring the architect's social ecosystem ". A comparative analysis of the discourse of six female architects working in Tokyo showed how to overcome gender barriers in the profession through diversifying and democratizing architectural practices.
Industrial urbanization disconnected city dwellers from direct access to natural resources. Consequently urban forests were introduced into cities for their aesthetic and environmental qualities, and are managed through the practice of urban forestry, which primarily focuses on maintenance services. However, emerging initiatives around the world are expanding the scope of urban forestry practice through the network generated by untapped forestry resources in the city. This study aims to clarify the potential of urban forestry for fostering citizens participation through resources accessibility, by comparing the network of different case studies based on the resources transformation and the members involvement.
Urban parks are places that have significant impact on the physical and mental health of citizens, but they are also for safeguarding biodiversity and thus fostering human–nature interactions in the everyday landscape. The exploration of these spaces through social media represents a novel field of research that is contributing to revealing patterns of visitor behavior. However, there is a lack of comparable research from a non-anthropocentric perspective. What if we could use social media as a more-than-human communication medium? This research aims to reveal the possibility of communicating the urban forest’s voice through the examination of the official Twitter account of a metropolitan park in Tokyo. To this end, an analysis of the content of the messages is carried out, focusing on the narrative voice from which the message is told, the protagonists, the action performed, the network of actors deployed, and the place where it occurs. It is found that the majority of these messages are delivered from a non-human perspective, where plants, animals, or meteorological agents behave deploying complex networks of more-than-human interaction. The current study reveals the latent potential of non-humans as possible agents within the realm of social media, which can mediate the relationships between humans and their environment. It introduces a layer that can be incorporated into future lines of research, as well as provides a model case that illustrates a good practice in the management and communication of urban green spaces.
This study explores urban forestry as a maintenance practice capable of enhancing more-than-human commons in the city. Focusing on the places associated with tree care, the methodology takes as a case study the Tokyo Metropolitan Parks, conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis through the means of immersive field work and questionnaires, to reveal how urban forestry practices materialize within the parks. Regarding the spatial relations between humans and/or non-humans with resources, different Urban Forestry Elements (UFE) have been found, as well as their collection in groups within the parks forming Urban Forestry Assemblages (UFA). The paper creates a comprehensive framework that reveals these places for urban forestry as important beacons for urban commoning.
ResumenContar una historia (monogatari) sobre la cocina japonesa conlleva inevitablemente una reflexión sobre la tipología arquitectónica más célebre del país: la casa unifamiliar. Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la vivienda unifamiliar se convirtió en la unidad básica que conformó el paisaje urbano japonés. El rápido crecimiento económico dio lugar a un claro patrón no sólo en el mercado de la vivienda, sino también en la composición familiar. Influenciados por modelos occidentales, los roles de género convencionales se encarnaron en el hombre asalariado (salaryman), relacionado con los centros corporativos, y el ama de casa a tiempo completo (sengyō shufu), asociada al espacio doméstico. Entre todas las piezas habitacionales, la cocina era la más clara en su premisa: el lugar donde la mujer cocina. Esta construcción social estaba codificada en su articulación espacial, ya que solía estar aislada del resto de las habitaciones, posicionada en el fondo de la casa. Las arquitectas y arquitectos japoneses han desafiado estas convenciones mediante diseños de casas radicales, a menudo elogiadas por su pequeñez, blancura y ligereza. Sin embargo, resulta necesario ir más allá de esta ‘fetichización’ para evaluar estas propuestas conforme a las relaciones que plantean. Sus atrevidos diseños no sólo son innovadores en términos formales, sino que van más allá, subvirtiendo las nociones normativas de domesticidad y sugiriendo diversas ‘performatividades’ en la arquitectura. La cocina es a menudo el lugar donde la experimentación es más evidente, materializando ingeniosos conceptos en los modos de habitar. Las cuestiones relativas a la tecnología, la economía y, sobre todo, el género se despliegan en este lugar de trabajo doméstico. Conectada o aislada, visible u oculta, la cocina cristaliza las relaciones de poder a través de acciones arquitectónicas. Desde una perspectiva crítica de género, este artículo aborda las casas japonesas desde el siglo XX hasta la actualidad, mostrando diversas estrategias y exponiendo aquellos principios arquitectónicos y convenciones sociales contra los que se rebelan. Estas casas fomentan la creación de realidades alternativas, trastocando las ideas preconcebidas de lo que es una cocina, una casa o una familia.AbstractTelling a story (monogatari) about the Japanese kitchen inevitably entails reflecting on the most celebrated architectural typology in the country, the detached house. After World War II, it became the basic unit that shaped the Japanese urban landscape. Rapid economic growth resulted in a clear pattern not only in the housing market but also in family composition. Influenced by western models, conventional gender roles were embodied in the breadwinner (salaryman), related to corporate centers, and the full-time homemaker (sengyō shufu), associated with the domestic space. Among all the rooms, the kitchen was the clearest in its premise: the place where the wife cooks. This gender construct was encoded in its spatial articulation, with the kitchen being hidden from the rest of the house and usually occupying a dead-end position. Japanese architects have challenged these conventions through radical house designs, often praised for their smallness, whiteness, and lightness. However, it is necessary to go beyond this ‘fetishization’ to evaluate these proposals for the relationships they pose. Their bold designs are not only ground-breaking in formal terms but go further, subverting normative notions of domesticity and suggesting alternative gender ‘performativities’ in architecture. The kitchen is often the site of the most outstanding experimentation, materializing inventive concepts of living. Questions concerning technology, economy, and above all, gender unfold in this domestic workplace. If connected or isolated, visible or hidden, it materializes power relations through architectural actions. From a critical gender perspective, this article takes Japanese houses from the 20th century to the present day, showing diverse strategies and exposing those architectural principles and social conventions against which they rebel. These houses foster the creation of alternative realities, disrupting preconceived ideas of what is a kitchen, what is a house, or what is a family.
Miho Hamaguchi (1915-1988) was the first woman to be a licensed architect in Japan. A pioneer in domestic design during the postwar period, she built and consulted on thousands of houses throughout her prolific career. However, she is a little-known figure both in Japan and in the international debate. Her representation in architectural historiography is limited to her influence on kitchen design, but her writings and work go far beyond. Hamaguchi's legacy is one of bold residential architecture that embodied democratic ideas in spatial configurations. She promoted the house as a fundamental tool for gender equality, leaving behind a feudal and patriarchal system. At the end of her career, she found in Costa del Sol the perfect place to carry out a residential project as a cultural exchange. "Kaiyo Club" became a set of three houses since the first design in 1974 until the subsequent extensions were completed in 1987. Throughout its different stages, the project shows a striking Spanish-Japanese transfer where different architectural languages coexist. The white-walled exterior dialogues with the vernacular, while its interior unfolds Japanese patterns with tatami-floored rooms or ofuro-style bathrooms. These dwellings present a unique hybrid materialization, displaying Hamaguchi's design from a humanistic stance, blending of locally rooted modernist spatial principles and reinterpreted traditions.
Framed within the question of how gender influences the production of urban space, this study reveals how Jiyūgaoka, a high-end suburban area in Tokyo, has developed by targeting a particular gender role: women as caretakers and consumers. Car-safe and bike-friendly, Jiyūgaoka pedestrian areas have more greenery, pavement, and urban furniture in comparison with the average Tokyo street. Jiyūgaoka spatial practices encourage the meeting of people in the public realm, creating relationships between behaviors and their supporting physical environment. By aiming at women, other non-normative bodies were rendered into the city, enhancing public life and creating an accessible milieu. Jiyūgaoka genderfication process, by which the overlaying of commercial and gender mechanisms has impacted urban phenomena, is shown through a chronological investigation of gender-charged contents and its mapping in the urban fabric. This study demonstrates how urban transformation in Jiyūgaoka has encompassed changes in the lives of women in Japanese society. Representative examples from each period illustrate the physical translation of this development, from a home cooking school to a promenade with hundreds of benches.
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