Reframing gendered elements of architectural space : examination of the democratic potentials of gender aware architecture practice

In the current political era, gender rights are once again under discussion in a way comparable to the previous time of discussion on women’s rights beginning in the 20th century in Finland. Although in present times, basic rights have generally been guaranteed to also gender-diverse people, gender diversity has been faced with strong injustices by law, such as the compulsory sterilization requirement for confirming legal gender tcorresponding gender identity, which was only abolished in the renewed 2023’s trans law in Finland. The rights of gender-diverse people are being discussed especially now in the 2020s, and gender-related changes are also visible in the practice of architecture in Finland.

The dichotomous male-female divisions of modernist architecture have been challenged in the new millennium, and new gender-neutral spaces have been designed especially for urban environments where gender equality issues have been addressed more. The master’s thesis research examines the theme of gender through modernist architecture and raises the topic of multidisciplinary social perspective of architecture in addition. The study examines the role of social space in architectural spaces and architecture’s potential to create democratic spaces, which seek to unite people beyond gender.

The study explores the intersections of gender and architecture, utilizing literature review and ethnographic methods of spatial observation and spatial analysis with a focus on public architecture. The theoretical framework’s literature review includes a variety of materials from news, articles, books and images, connecting them with history of Finnish urbanization and modernism, construction of political rights and anthropological interpretations on gender roles and norms.