Housing designed thinking about women between academy and gender mainstreaming

Abstract

This article is based on the paper “Three projects + some referents: housing design tailored to women” submitted to the 5th International Engendering Conference Engendering Habitat III. Facing the Global Challenges in Cities, Climate Change and Transport. The paper was presented at the panel “Gender policies in the urban planning of local and regional administrations”, chaired by Professor Inés Sánchez de Madariaga. Three different experiences summarize a process to establish connections between theory and practice by involving academy, politics and symbolism in the introduction of women’s right in housing design and planning. Feminicides perpetrated against  Rosa Elvira Cely, Yuliana Andrea Samboní, Viviam Urrego and Dora Lilia Gálvez, warn that urban parks, streets, malls and never mind homes are safe spaces for women. They point out that, in order to give response to women’s demands in terms of housing and urban planning, architectural graphic and digital tools might be useful to fight violence against women and girls. This paper focuses on how these tools might help to find the best designs to reduce spatial risk conditions.