Can cities be designed with women in mind? Why do we still apply ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ to interior spaces? Two industry leaders share their opinions
What role does gender play in design? Can we build cities that are safe for women? Two leading voices in design hope to find the answers
‘I am all about breaking stereotypes and am in the process of empowering those who feel unfavoured. It is not just a man’s world’
NTHABI TAUKOBONG
Creatives and artists alike are beyond gender. Our world does not operate within these limitations because we can cross over and tap into whatever energy we need during our creative process, and that is where authentic freedom of design originates. I think a true creative knows how to straddle both sides of the equation regardless of their gender.you cannot categorise people and designers into these boxes only, understanding that we are more concerned with achieving the best creative outcome for our projects.
As in life, we find in design ayin and Yang, dark and light, negative and positive, to the look and feel of what we are creating. What would be easier to relate to in terms of word choice is a masculine or feminine style of design – which, in all essence, is not a bad outlook: when we think of typical masculine energy and style of design, we often tap into its hard elements and qualities.and when we think of a feminine style, we tap into the softer, more nurturing qualities of a goddess.
As a creative, I need to enter into a genderless role, allowing the authentic creative process to work through me. I know that, at any given time, I can tap into the creative parts I need to produce a holistic interior that best suits my client. Male and female design styles can help you to a point, but often you need to delve deeper than that, transcending beyond human limit at ions. i have found true design harmony can be best achieved when both spheres of energy are balanced.
I understand the power of tapping into my goddess energy because it connects me to Nature and all the elements available to me within that design sphere. My skill as an interior designer comes from knowing how to tune into the higher order of design using Nature as my inspiration and knowing what elements to use and when to create a balanced, peaceful, tranquil interior.the secret is intuitively knowing how much of each element is required in any given space. Earth translates into the finishes I bring into the interior space I am designing, such as natural materials in their raw state: woods and breathable, natural, eco-friendly fabrics.air is my ability to give an interior a sense of spaciousness. Fire links me back to my tones and textures, tapping into the amount of heat my design needs – and by selecting just the right amount of fiery tones and textures I need to bring into my creation – and colours such as terracotta, burgundy or whatever rich warmth my space requires. water is the liquidity and flow of the space I am creating and the tones and textures, again, that I choose to bring in, and making sure the interior is not stagnant or overly decorated.
I am all about breaking stereotypes and am in the process of empowering those who feel unfavoured. It is not just a man’s world. Once we focus on creating a vocabulary that also works to the feminine strength, then we will win at life. Queens do not have to aspire to live in a Kingdom because Queendoms are there for the taking.
Nthabitaukobong is the founder and managing director of Ditau Interiors, an interior design consultancy based in Joburg
GECI KARURI-SEBINA
I always remember a stunning fact that a Un-habitat executive offered at a workshop about a decade ago: that the unplanned footprint of african cities has exceeded that of the planned. that is, that informal settlements are more prevalent than formal, planned settlements in our cities. this is frankly mind-boggling. My urban design and planning texts didn’ t teach me about this! I learned about creating colour-coded plans, orthogonal order, rational strategies and idyllic designs. I learned that someone paid for this, and a functional organisation regulated it. that there were legal processes for everything and business models to make it all work.
Over the past few years, I have used my platform to develop and argue the idea that we need to “un-vision” our cities: we need a major reframing in how we imagine what our cities are – and what they are trying to be. Is all we have to look forward to bigger, shinier buildings that exclude the majority population and entrench power hierarchies – then layering technology on top of that and calling it “smart”?
Dominant ideas of “city” that we hold are the product of a male gaze, powerful capital, technocrats, and historical choices made by the sum total of these. I say this needs to be undone. Cities everywhere are complex and nuanced. they are the tired back of a woman, the colourful laughter of children, the disruptive aspirations of youth, the hopeful sparkle in the eye of the immigrant – but they are also the car, the greed, the grind, the toxic, the brutal. They are constantly being unravelled by both human and non-human factors: a tiny, tiny virus, climate events, economic turns. Yet cities find ways to accommodate these, sometimes in gruesome or explosive ways. Cities are not fully containable in any grid or hierarchy; they constantly find ways to undermine these.
The un-visioned city is about “others” who have not been centred in city-making, but who exercise their agency to make other ways. they hustle.
Was their exclusion intentional? How can it not be? But perhaps it was not necessarily conscious.
So, what does a feminist approach to urbanism look like? It would have to un-vision the static, conventional idea of what the good, or smart, city is. It would dismantle the hierarchy (ego) and welcome new forms that are non-hierarchical and transversal (the eco). It would pay attention to the wide range of human and nonhuman factors, and contexts: the labour and dreams of that woman, the safety and nurturing of that child, the creative pursuits of those young people, the enterprise of the immigrant, the earth, the water, the mountain... noticing all of these, seeing them as the city, working with them to weave and let weaved the delicate fabric of the city.
We sometimes focus too much on the agency of government or big capital.we think they are responsible for city and place-making. But in fact there are choices that the average person makes – or could make – every day that shape or enable, change or unravel the city and how it functions.the neighbourhood you choose to live in, what and where you buy or invest, what you create and what you destroy; these all shape urbanism. There is room for all of us as urban actors to be more intentional, or at least reflexive, about this.
For now, “we” – the formal systems – struggle to critically self-assess, adapt and cooperate.we neither try nor succeed to find reciprocity between ourselves and the ecosystems that exist around and in spite of us.we manifest ego-logy instead of ecology.
In speaking of making our cities safer – we know that there is a lot that we can improve through physical interventions – improve street lighting, calm traffic, clear bushy areas and fence off abandoned spaces. We can also police, put up gates and mount more Cctvcameras. But the evidence is that this is not enough to keep women or anything else safe.we need an ecology of care. Urban design can curate beautifully within that.
Geci Karuri-sebina is a scholar-practitioner working on urban planning and innovation systems governance issues. She is currently an associate of the Southafrican Cities Network, visiting faculty with the Wits School of Governance and Uctafrican Centre for Cities, and national organiser of the Civictech Innovation Network based in Southafrica
‘A feminist approach to urbanism would have to un-vision the conventional idea of what a smart city is’