In the home the intricate relations between architecture, gender and domesticity become visible. Negotiating Domesticity investigates the many and complex themes evoked by the interconnections between these terms. Topics covered include famous as well as less well-known architectural examples and architects, which are explored from sociological, anthropological, philosophical and psychoanalytical approaches. The authors explore the relationships between modern domestic spaces and sexed subjectivities in a broad range of geographical locations of Western modernity. This richly interdisiplinary work presents architects and postgraduate students with an in-depth exploration of domesticity in the modern era.

Product Description: Of late, the disciplines of art, design, and architecture have been called upon to engage in current social issues--a development which surely has some connection with recent international political and economic trends. If the 1990s can be described as a period of unprecedented financial and political prosperity--at least in the Western world--that decade now seems completely consigned to history...read more

Critical theories such as those of the Frankfurt School of the twenties and thirties gave rise to a complex and sophisticated critique of modernity and modernism. The history and theory of twentieth-century architecture, which developed rather independently of this rich tradition, appear naive and unbalanced in comparison. In this exploration of the relationship between modernity, dwelling, and architecture, Hilde Heynen attempts to bridge this gap between the discourse of the modern movement and cultural theories of modernity. On one hand, she discusses architecture from the perspective of critical theory, and on the other she modifies positions within critical theory by linking them with architecture. She assesses architecture as a cultural field that structures daily life and that embodies major contradictions inherent in modernity, arguing that architecture nonetheless has a certain capacity to adopt a critical stance vis-à-vis modernity.Besides presenting a theoretical discussion of the relation between architecture, modernity, and dwelling, the book provides architectural students with an introduction to the discourse of critical theory. The subchapters on Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, and the Venice School (Tafuri, Dal Co, Cacciari) can be studied independently.