In partnership with John Jennifer Marx, the AR has published Towards Abundance: The Delightful Paradoxes of Gender, a monograph exploring alternatives to normative masculine design cultures and advocating new expressive worlds.
Refiguring the mythic motif of the three Graces as trans agents of mutability and potential, the cover image, drawn by Madelon Vriesendorp, suggests a new world may be dawning. ‘In this advocacy monograph’, writes John Jennifer Marx in the introduction, ‘we hope to explore the paradoxical relationship between gender and architecture; to advocate for changes in how we see gender, and as a result in how we design’.
This publication asks that we free ourselves from normative masculine design cultures and create new expressive worlds full of paradox and delight. It includes contributions by Adam Nathaniel Furman, Madelon Vriesendorp, Jessica Andrews, Pol Esteve Castelló, Dang Qun, Yael Reisner, Darran Anderson, Sumayya Vally, and many more.
Towards Abundance: the Delightful Paradoxes of Gender is a 58-page publication that advocates for designers and architects to reconsider a normative masculine tradition in how spaces are conceived and created, a tradition that may feel outdated yet is very much alive in contemporary practice.
Towards Abundance: the Delightful Paradoxes of Gender addresses the subject of gender and architectural design through actively soliciting multiple interpretations from a non-prescriptive, wholly inquisitive and intellectually inclusive perspective. The monograph asks questions and invites readers to interrogate what is suggested by its editorial team of 16 contributors who represent the worlds of design practice, architectural history and theory as well as gender research and journalism.
Topics covered include: Multi-cultural urbanism in the face of placeless and often characterless modernity. The introduction of a more sensual and sensitive placemaking that is welcoming to all. Rethinking the singular maestro-led vision of how architecture is made, The paradox and evolution of vision and collaboration, especially in terms of gender norms. The types and qualities of gender categories. Male violence and normative design practice.
An over-arching theme that resonates throughout the chapters in Towards Abundance: the Delightful Paradoxes of Gender is that of finding a better balance between the rational and the notional. As editor John Jennifer Marx writes, “Imagine, as we look past a culture of binary gender, we might see the beginning of ‘gender expressionism’, of a balance between self-expression and belonging, a celebration of our uniqueness in the context of our commonalities.”
Distributed with the AR May issue, Towards Abundance can be read online