Caring for the Living Environment

Abstract

In today's society, women are still not positioned as equals to men. This is no different in the field of architecture. When designing the built environment, the white man is still the norm and within the work field, the man still fills the majority of the higher positions in architectural firms. However, women have a different, more care-centric view of the environment than men, which enables them to look at buildings with a broader perspective and to enhance them substantially with other qualities. The feminist theory “ethics of care” explores the issue of how historically the primary responsibility of women has been taking care of others. This research connects the theory of ethics of care to the history of feminised domestic work and uses the historical progression of the women's advisory committee to examine the role of this theory within housing. In the Dutch housing sector, Vrouwenadviescommissies (Women’s Advisory Committees, VAC) of voluntary women have been set up since 1946 to assess the quality of use of dwellings and the living environment from the point of view of the residents, using their situated knowledge as housewives. The VAC Hengelo was founded in 1957 to provide housing quality advice within the major reconstruction task of this city, which was bombed in 1944, and was the first VAC in the region of Twente. This thesis aims to expose the difference between the male and female views on housing by giving examples of the female perspective through the case study of the VAC Hengelo during the years 1957 to 2017. Primary data collection has been done by interviewing former members of the VAC Hengelo and the housing association Welbions, and through archival research at the Municipality Hengelo. This secondary data was collected by doing literature research, with Carol Gilligan and her theory of the ethics of care, and Silvia Federici, with her theory of reproductive labour, being the leading sources. The case study of the VAC Hengelo is used to fill the research gap of the theoretical framework with the role that housewives have played in housing design through the Women's Advisory Committee. Background information on the origin of the VAC in general, the history of Hengelo during this period and the VAC Hengelo is provided to establish historical insight. The case study of the VAC Hengelo reveals, by examples, how the feminist concept of ethics of care could perfectly work as a background explanation of how women, through history, made choices in the design of housing in a different, broadening and more inclusive perspective than men.