Dariana Nistor

MAKING GENUS | EXPLORING GENDER ROLES WITHIN UTOPIAN SOCIETIES

I come with empty hands and the desire to unbuild walls.
Ursula Le Guin, 1974

Social constructs dictate a set of pre-defined social institutions which shape spatial agencies in a self-sustaining, never-ending exercise. Looking at the world through a gendered lens is problematic because it creates a hierarchical structure founded on binary terms, forming power structures, social boundaries and default identity expectations. These social thresholds dictate the way in which the built environment is created and the manner in which it operates: a gendered perpetuum mobile running on fetishised universality.

Concerned with the social and architectural implications of living in a post-gender world, the ‘Making Genus’ project is a thought experiment on a utopian society. Deeply rooted in utopian feminist science-fiction, the project aims to critically assess the gendered status quo of our contemporary society and tries to propose speculative alternatives. 

Located in the North Sea and taking the form of a utopian island, the project is defined by an architectural language that moves away from the conventionality and rigidity of the built environment, a language impregnated with ideas of utopian dreams, environmental consciousness, social equality and kinship.