FEMINIST SPATIAL PRACTICES (SINCE 2023)
Feminist Spatial Practices is a global collective promoting feminist practices in art, design, architecture, and activism. We organize virtual and in-person programming to share the work of feminist spatial practitioners and maintain an online platform featuring an interactive map and searchable index of practitioners worldwide. Together we build a resilient community of practice that fosters international solidarity and advances knowledge exchange rooted in values of care and generosity.
Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken, 'Feminist Spatial Practices, Part 1', 2023
FEMINIST SPATIAL PRACTICES
Spacious advocates for cultural change in architectural practice, moving away from a working culture driven by competition and rivalry towards one grounded in conscious collaboration, critical experimentation and embodied practice. Through this approach, we offer a gentle, sensorial and performative contribution to the powerful field of transformation spatial practice that challenges the core values of patriarchal, (neo-)colonial, and capitalist systems. By shifting focus from values such as (over) consumption, extraction, and (unchecked) economic growth, we seek to expand ways of thinking and making in the built environment, fostering more equitable and (climate) just spaces.
Systemic change is a collective endeavour. Therefore, we joined the global collective Feminist Spatial Practices (FSP), a global collective of artists, architects, designers, scholars, and activists that celebrate the diverse ways that feminism is practiced across the globe. The collective considers 'spatial practices' broadly to include any creative work engaging with the built environment (art, design, performance, architecture, planning, writing, researching, curating, etc.). ‘Feminist’ here indicates practices that actively engage with themes of social equity, including practitioners of any background and gender identification. As founding member and co-chair of the International Solidarity working group, Spacious contributes to the organization of virtual and in-person programming to share the work of feminist spatial practitioners and to the maintenance of an online platform featuring an interactive map and searchable index of practitioners worldwide. The main aim of the archive and the community program is to foster international solidarity and advance knowledge exchange within the feminist spatial community.
COMMUNITY PROGRAM
FSP founders Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken explain: ‘Feminist spatial practices often defy disciplinary boundaries, slipping between art, architecture, theory, and social practice to enable more equitable social and spatial environments for intersectionally marginalized communities. Despite this kaleidoscopic range, the fields of the built environment continue to treat feminism as a numbers game: a quantitative problem of packing more, typically cis-gendered, women into practices, faculties, dean’s offices, and board rooms. Representation does matter, but representation without other changes leaves existing patriarchal, capitalist, and colonialist systems intact.’
In response, the community program seeks to further systemic change by emphasizing the transformative potential of feminist spatial practices. It highlights the diverse ways in which practitioners work towards more equitable, generous and caring worlds. Through participatory and reciprocal approaches, both within our organization and in our wider community, we offer virtual and in-person events that create non-hierarchical spaces for exchange. Through inspirational lectures, practice shares and workshops we offer a safe space to critically question assumed gender norms and address feminist spatial themes such as expanded histories, embodied theories, collaborative practices, experimental pedagogies, spaces for non-conforming bodies, and alternative materialities.
The program contributes to transformation in the architectural profession by making room for a feminist voice, something many of our members lacked access to in their education and early careers. For both participants and organizers, the collective offers a sense of belonging in the architectural field and a source of empowerment to further imagine and enact cultural change in the architectural discipline.
FEMINIST SPATIAL PRACTICES
Team and Partners
Feminist Spatial Practices (FSP) is a collective of artists, designers, scholars, educators, and activists from around the world who align with feminist values. Founded in 2023 by Bryony Roberts and Abriannah Aiken through an open call, the collective now includes members across the globe and operates through collaborative working groups that meet regularly online. Members include Santiago Alvarez; Bilge Bal; Pip Bennett; Layna Chen; Ridhi Chopra; Elizabeth Cox; Cynthia Deng; Elif Erez; Lindsay Harkema; Ruo Jia; Virginia Melnyk; Bryony Roberts; Katie Rotman; Kari Roynesdal; Defne Saysel; Ishita Shah; Amiti Singh; Ryan Brooke Thomas; Renske Maria van Dam.
We are generously supported through a crowdfunding campaign, and funding from the RE:ARC institute and Cowles Charitable Trust.
RELATED WORK
CATEGORY
