enGENDERING Urban Design: Gender and Self-Produced Environments

2018

Faculty:

Chelina Odbert, Ignacio Cardona, Instructors; Olivia Hansberg Pastor,

Teaching Assistant

Students:

Angeliki Giannisi, Anne Stack, Carolyn Angius, Deni López, Evangeline Sheridan, Mark Bennett, Monica Miyagusuku, Loyiso Qaqane, Sudeshna Sen, Yuki Perry

Institutions:

Harvard Graduate School of Design

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This urban design studio investigated the relationship between gender and self-produced environments, asking how participatory design could address how gender shapes access, mobility, safety, care, and everyday urban experience. Focusing on La Favorita, a self-produced neighborhood in Mendoza, Argentina, students combined spatial analysis and community engagement to develop site-specific interventions and neighborhood strategies.

The studio positioned participation as a form of design inquiry through which students, instructors, residents, and local actors collectively produced knowledge about the territory. The work examined how gendered inequalities become spatial through everyday practices and access to urban systems, connecting gender with public space, mobility, infrastructure, and neighborhood connectivity.