Architecture is a subject which demands to be understood in context: that is, within the context of its production (society, economics, politics, culture) and the context of its consumption, representation and interpretation (different academic disciplines, interest groups, institutions, users). In the light of enormous and rapid shifts in theoretical, historical and critical debates, particularly with respect to feminism, understanding architecture in relation to gender demands an urgent contextualisation.

A major change in thinking about gender, feminism, space and architecture has occurred in the last five or so years and it has become vital to place current discussions within an intellectual history, enabling some understanding to be gained of the basis and development of these contemporary ideas. Gender, Space, Architecture intends to do just that.

The purpose of the book is to provide a comprehensive introduction to issues of gender as they pertain to  architectural studies. This is the first such book to include a range of key texts from both within and outside of architecture published over the last 20 years, and also to provide a clear framework by which to investigate the subject. Gender, Space, Architecture simultaneously presents closure and aperture – a momentary recapitulation of seminal texts both past and present, as well as provide an opening of the territory to future new ideas and practices.

We imagine readers to come with varying interests from a number of different areas; from within architecture with an interest in gender, from within gender studies with an interest in space and architecture, and from within spatialised disciplines, such as geography and anthropology, with an interest in gender and in architecture.

Publication Details: Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner and Iain Borden (eds.), Gender, Space, Architecture: an Interdisciplinary Introduction, (London: Routledge, 1999).