jennifer bloomer
In September, Ann Bergren W1'Ote a letter to Jennif e?' Bloomer about her concerns with the subject of Architecture and the Feminine in ANY. In late October Jennifer began her Teply to Ann. In early December Jennifer finish ed heT letter, but instead of sending it to Ann, she sent it to me. I wrote a reply to Jennif er. All thr-ee of these lette?'s appear in this issue, beginning below, in reverse chronological or·der. 10 December 1993 Dear Jennifer, Ever since we decided to do this Architecture and the Feminine issue I have found myself defending our decision and answering to critics, many of them women. of this I realized that, like others, I am struggling with place of the feminine myself. the idea of the feminine discussion of the feminine in architecture that for many women still feels like a ghettoization of a cultural issue? And , probably more importantly than any of these concerns, where in architecture does the feminine find its site? I arrived home last night with your afternoon fax letter tucked into my carrying case still unread. Sam requested some yogurt and Kyle asked for drawing paper before I even had my coat off. After negotiating to defer the yogurt I instructed Kyle on how to get paper for himself and then had to spend a few minutes looking at an etching Peter brought home from Harvard. A young female student had made it several years ago and had just gotten up the nerve to give it to him. It's called "Sexual Frustration" and depicts what appears to be a contorted male body placed horizontally between the stairs of House VI. I told him I thought it was as simple as her dissatisfaction with his method of making a house (I am certain it's much more) and went to hang up my coat. Then I put a pot of water on to boil and set the table. I put a couple of candles on because Kyle wants to celebrate Hanukkah this year (he's not Jewish, he just wants to get eight nights' worth of presents). I had to promise to get a real menorah for tonight. We ate pasta with marinara sauce from Jefferson Market, a green salad, brownies from Balducci's, and sour chelTies that I did not pick, pit, or put up on ice cream that was not homemade. Kyle cleared the table while I checked his homework (he's getting to be a whiz at math) and then I did
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up the dishes, pans and all, because we have for the first time a cockroach problem. I can't leave anything out overnight. Peter told the kids a monkey story (their favorite) at bedtime, and after I turned out their light I sat down to read your letter. Of course the phone rang. It was my mother wanting to know what our Christmas plans would be and whether I had talked with my brothers (whom I never talk to; why would I now?) and whether we would all get together (which means me packing up my family, renting a car, and driving north for nearly three hours). So finally, at about 9:45, I began to read your Ann, which you you .
something more, creative activity, another venue, have discovered that it is not only impossible to leave the domestic behind but also that the domestic, for all its trials and tribulations, is a place of strength not to be undervalued and not to be abandoned. For example, how I manage my relationships at home with the babysitter, the cleaning lady, the building super, my children, and my husband (not to mention th e exterminator) provides a basis for how I manage my relationships at the office, with my peers, and in the profession of architecture. For many women (and men) in architecture, however, this realization that the domestic is a position of strength is misread as a feminine predilection or even predisposition for residential architecture or interior (nesting) design. In fact, the creative ordering that we must achieve in order to successfully manage professional and domestic careers is a kind of architectural problem solving itself. And the foundation for this ordering, I believe, is the feminine - the metis, or even the chora, of which Ann writes. On reading Ann's letter I wanted to seize the term f eminine (I am refraining from using reappmpriate) and call it mine, ours, a term no less or more impOltant than the masculine with which it is dialectically paired and which is defined no more by the masculine than the masculine is defined by the feminin e. The same is true of the drawing on the cover of ANY . I tried to find striking cat},atids, tried serializing cal}' atids (I liked the idea
of mul l iple fe'l clles), but nothing worked graj!1 ;, ally. Then I reme mbereel ' li e image from Laugier's E s,' (i sur l'architecture with archited Ire as woman, tools in hand, r esting ,n the ruins of classical at'clli :cture and pointing to nature (which )iana Agrest sees as pat'allpl to tI ll :'eminine in this issue). "Oh that ima~ is a bit retardataire," said one ma n. ,\nother man said, "That imagt' I longs to Leon Krier, I only think (I' Krier when I see it." (Given these , I titudes, I am surprb ed it's lot on the cover of Joseph Ryk\\ inPa'i
Icism. able to tea)' lown or, less radically, even c1is plae{' he traditions of classicism t h.,· sustain architecture and fi nd an ntill'r way of making, we will no t only "concile architecture with tile fern i ' ne but may even make a new I I.lce for architecture in the 21 st cenu·y. "This is the II st political thing you have done," ]\ trio Gandelsonas said after t he In ,I \/Y Event. Indeed, the feminin (' : I lpears to be more overtly poli l i, . I than Electrotecture. EverY 'lDe S (~( IS to accept that our lives are rapi,j y becoming entwined with fiber opt 's and instant communicatic s and nonspatial netwOI'ks, all . f which hold the potential to s wert the tr aditional practice of :w ilitecture. No one seems to be (II ,enly concerned about this. B ut t ht· ,lea of the feminine is disco n~erti Jl j.! It leads me to think that t he fe mi . ne, that position of "weakness, ill, 'gitimacy, and bastard daught.ers" III which Liquid inc so cunningly sP' lks, is seen to be subversive ji' ,m a position of strength. Mil' I you, Mario was one of the few me , in the audience at In ANY Event .. nd certainly the only male archite( I of his generation. AppaJ'ently III;m y men deal best with the noti, 1 of architecture and the feminin ,~ '.y avoiding it. If you don't
nO.
up the dishes, pans and all, because we have for the first time a cockroach problem. I can't leave anything out overnight. Peter told the kids a monkey story (their favorite) at bedtime, and after I turned out their light I sat down to read your letter. Of course the phone rang. It was my mother wanting to know what our Christmas plans would be and whether I had talked with my brothers (whom I never talk to; why would I now?) and whether we would all get together (which means me packing up my family, renting a car, and driving north for nearly three hours). So finally, at about 9:45, I began to read your Ann, which you you .
something more, creative activity, another venue, have discovered that it is not only impossible to leave the domestic behind but also that the domestic, for all its trials and tribulations, is a place of strength not to be undervalued and not to be abandoned. For example, how I manage my relationships at home with the babysitter, the cleaning lady, the building super, my children, and my husband (not to mention th e exterminator) provides a basis for how I manage my relationships at the office, with my peers, and in the profession of architecture. For many women (and men) in architecture, however, this realization that the domestic is a position of strength is misread as a feminine predilection or even predisposition for residential architecture or interior (nesting) design. In fact, the creative ordering that we must achieve in order to successfully manage professional and domestic careers is a kind of architectural problem solving itself. And the foundation for this ordering, I believe, is the feminine - the metis, or even the chora, of which Ann writes. On reading Ann's letter I wanted to seize the term f eminine (I am refraining from using reappmpriate) and call it mine, ours, a term no less or more impOltant than the masculine with which it is dialectically paired and which is defined no more by the masculine than the masculine is defined by the feminin e. The same is true of the drawing on the cover of ANY . I tried to find striking cat},atids, tried serializing cal}' atids (I liked the idea
of mul l iple fe'l clles), but nothing worked graj!1 ;, ally. Then I reme mbereel ' li e image from Laugier's E s,' (i sur l'architecture with archited Ire as woman, tools in hand, r esting ,n the ruins of classical at'clli :cture and pointing to nature (which )iana Agrest sees as pat'allpl to tI ll :'eminine in this issue). "Oh that ima~ is a bit retardataire," said one ma n. ,\nother man said, "That imagt' I longs to Leon Krier, I only think (I' Krier when I see it." (Given these , I titudes, I am surprb ed it's lot on the cover of Joseph Ryk\\ inPa'i
Icism. able to tea)' lown or, less radically, even c1is plae{' he traditions of classicism t h.,· sustain architecture and fi nd an ntill'r way of making, we will no t only "concile architecture with tile fern i ' ne but may even make a new I I.lce for architecture in the 21 st cenu·y. "This is the II st political thing you have done," ]\ trio Gandelsonas said after t he In ,I \/Y Event. Indeed, the feminin (' : I lpears to be more overtly poli l i, . I than Electrotecture. EverY 'lDe S (~( IS to accept that our lives are rapi,j y becoming entwined with fiber opt 's and instant communicatic s and nonspatial netwOI'ks, all . f which hold the potential to s wert the tr aditional practice of :w ilitecture. No one seems to be (II ,enly concerned about this. B ut t ht· ,lea of the feminine is disco n~erti Jl j.! It leads me to think that t he fe mi . ne, that position of "weakness, ill, 'gitimacy, and bastard daught.ers" III which Liquid inc so cunningly sP' lks, is seen to be subversive ji' ,m a position of strength. Mil' I you, Mario was one of the few me , in the audience at In ANY Event .. nd certainly the only male archite( I of his generation. AppaJ'ently III;m y men deal best with the noti, 1 of architecture and the feminin ,~ '.y avoiding it. If you don't
