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Gender Inequality as a Function of Criticism in Architecture

Part 2 Dissertation 2019
Rachael O'Donnell
Robert Gordon University | UK
Architectural criticism contributes to the profession by communicating with the wider world, through images and written language, about our knowledge and that which we value. Arguably, in architectural discourse, the power of language remains too closely bound with phallogocentric ideas about human consciousness. This in turn results in the potential for metaphors, meaning and messages on concepts such as form, beauty, creativity and genius, to perpetuate gender stereotypes, sexism and other forms of gender bias in the profession. Using a form of literary analysis, the researcher explored and investigated some of the reporting and opinion pieces on two recently completed stadia; The Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar, designed by Dame Zaha Hadid and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, designed by Populous. The Literature Review drew on research and literature from linguistics, the history of architecture, gender and architecture, feminist writers, social action theory and the concept of individual agency in psychology. The researcher identified a need for education in architecture to teach more about how much we need to unlearn: to discard or undo previously held forms of knowledge, as well as, a need to teach more about the powerful and influential relationship that exists between the profession and journalists.
Rachael O'Donnell

Tutor(s)
Marianthi Leon
2019
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