Cities are not neutral. This session looked at how urban design, architecture, and public space systematically prioritise male-coded uses, bodies, and movements — and what it would mean to design differently. We explored concrete examples from public toilets and park lighting to transport routing and workplace temperature, and asked who else gets left out when the default is male.
Materials
Main
- A YouTube video on why cities are sexist — good overview of the basics (YouTube · 3 min)
- A TED talk on designing cities for women — heavily focused on motherhood and carework (YouTube · 15 min)
- Another TED talk on why we should include poor people in city design — think informal settlements and who gets excluded from formal planning (YouTube · 15 min)
- A short article on the Reclaim the Night movement in the Netherlands in the light of the recent femicide in Amsterdam (article · European Correspondent)
- Another brief article with a good overview of challenges and perspectives in designing inclusively (article)
- A podcast — listen up to about minute 25 (Spotify · 45 min, listen to ~25)
- You could also have a look at the two graphs (section 2.4 Major findings, p. 13 & p. 24 only) of this large-scale study on where and what type of violence women in Germany experience (paper · PDF)
Supplementary
- A brief overview of the public toilet policy in Vienna — which was in the media that summer (article)
- A brief BBC article on the art exhibition in Australia in 2023 that was for women only — a man sued for exclusion and lost the lawsuit (article · BBC)
- A podcast in Dutch on women in architecture (Spotify · Dutch)
- BBC documentary on city design for women highlighting the examples of Vienna and Barcelona (YouTube · 22 min)
- The Instagram account of Platform voor Architecture & Feminisme — organising very interesting events (Instagram)
Session structure
- Why does your city have a gender?
- Underrepresentation of women in architecture and urban planning creates inequity for the majority of the population
- Design creates sexism: public transport prioritises car ownership and peak-hour commutes; streets favour speed over safety
- Statues: only 2–3% of public statues in most European cities represent women — and most are allegorical, not historical
- Public space and safety
- Do you feel unsafe at night? What would make you feel safer?
- Are there particular places in Leuven (or your hometown) where you feel unsafe?
- Reclaim the Night movement — history and current relevance
- The violence statistics: what the graphs from the German study show
- How we were taught to be afraid of going out at night — and who profits from that fear
- Example of bad design: the Leuven train station — unclear entrance, poor lighting, feeling of unsafety
- City design beyond safety: making cities more women-friendly
- Streets: women drive less → prioritise public transport (also at night!) and walkways
- Lighting, park design, safe cycling infrastructure
- City zonation is male-oriented: financial districts (Docklands, La Défense, Brussels Noord) designed around male-coded work
- Vienna and Barcelona as examples of more female-oriented public space design — did you visit them?
- Intersectionality: less policing benefits women of colour; inclusive design benefits everyone
- Public toilets! And who pays for them
- Homes, workplaces, and the built environment
- Does your office or university have facilities specific to women? Pad dispensers, lactation rooms?
- Temperature in offices — calibrated to a 1960s male metabolic rate
- Accessibility: all Belgian buildings must be wheelchair-accessible, but not the interior spaces necessarily
- Conclusion: what do we take from this?
- What are our immediate, feasible actions?
- How would we design a city — if we could start from scratch?
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