Garden was my main motivation. Even at times I didn‘t know I would ever be a farmer I wanted to have a sufficient space for producing my own food. I wanted to be at home even after I closed the doors. Currently, there are not many ecological technologies ready for flats, so house has many advantages. We heat with wood, isolation was done with natural materials and we recycle trash water in the natural root cleaner. Low housing prices were of course another factor, although this has been changing recently.
‘‘This fear was transmitted to us through our parents who told us stories of our neighbors spying on us and reporting each other for small things like tearing the newspaper with the portrait of Stalin or using it as a toilet paper in the bathroom. I also think it is a generational issue. Young Kazakhs grew without it and these are the people who drive change. Older people will be more afraid to raise these topics, so I think it must go to younger people who are without fear, more globalized and better educated.’’’
,,Women’s issues do not hurt men. Gender hurts them because it means they have to share resources, money and power - this is far more radical than receiving support out of a position of someone in need of help. I use it to start the discussion about equality. ’’
‘‘The Swedish Advertising Ombudsman assesses whether your advertisement is sexist or not. I wish that there would be such an organisation active in the Czech Republic or even better, that it wouldn´t happen in the first place. I mean, why would a half-naked woman make you want to buy new car tires?’’
‘‘Before we enter mainstream sources, histories, even Wikipedia, we as women have to be aware of our heritage and achievements on an international scale. We can’t focus only on the local cases. The research, the information pack, has to be sound and has to cover at least one century in addition to being backed by a critical mass of scholars and practitioners, both men and women.’’
,,We have realized it was our fail and that we had to seal ourselves with protection from authorities. We went to the Chief Architect of Minsk. He endorsed us and eventually designated the project to some of his assistants, but it took almost four months until we got an official permission to make survey, organize participatory events and finally invest our own funds into installment of the playground.’’
‘‘A considerable problem in Styria is rural depopulation – especially, a lot of young women moving from the countryside into the city. The reasons for this are often complex; they range from jobs, education and cultural offers to childcare. Leaders in shrinking communities are often puzzled by this depopulation as they have no awareness of the realities of life for young women – how should they be able to represent these women politically? Therefore, it is even more important that women must get active themselves and start to co-create their home towns. We women must bring attention to what many male politicians do not see.’’
“Gender equality must manifest itself through the absolute equal participation of both men and women in political life, not just a number on a piece of paper.“
Ksenija Radovanovic, architect, activist Belgrade on Water, candidate for local election in Belgrade 2018, Belgrade, Serbia
,,We have a law that allows for a citizen to complain to a community council if they see something that they consider vulgar, improper or sexualized in outdoor advertising. If agreed, the advertising can then be taken down. A group like Chienne de Garde do amazing things – for example once they find such spot, they get keys to advertising stands and they just take it down during the night. They literally hack public furniture.’’
,,Bringing this project to the end was a very political act in its truest sense. I have attended several meetings of different committees at the City Hall; I have listened to insulting comments from different members. Some claimed it was a violation of their rights that we obliged them to read biographies of women that they were not interested in. The other comment was that we were supporting further distortion of the city with unnecessary construction. However, along the way, I have also been supported by a number of people; feminists who worked either in the City Council and / or the City Hall, but also ordinary employees and our partners.''
,,Later on, men extracted me, coming and asking me how I was doing, whether it wasn’t too much on me and so on. At some point I got tired of being told that I was tired. I started answering them. I wasn’t tired; on the contrary, I was filled with energy.''
Male guardianship (qawama) of female family members is not only a tradition but is inscribed in the law. According to the Jordanian Personal Status Law (no. 36, 2010) a male blood relative (wa ̄li) has the right to have guardianship of women. If woman is unmarried, under age of 30 or previously married, she must have male guardian. Upon marriage a woman is transferred from her father’s custody to her husband's. In Jordan woman's rights to housing are connected to her status as a wife or a daughter. If the father dies the brothers have the right to sell the house in which the mother and sister(s) are living. Consequently, the fate of a woman depends on the quality of the relationships she haa with male members of their family. In the case of divorce, a woman only has the right to housing if she is nursing or has been granted custody of the children.
''Placemaking is so concrete. You are talking about a very specific thing - a very specific place, which is a good way of starting dialogue and getting groups that may be in conflict on other issues to cooperate and at least to hear each other out. Some of the lessons from conflict zones apply to places that are under a lot of pressure from gentrification, because in essence gentrification is conflictual.''
,,I think historians are starting to revisit books on 20th-century architecture in order to ask, for example, where are the women architects? Who worked in collaboration with whom? What does it mean to be innovative and ground-breaking? We are not as ready as we were to believe that one person is able to foster wide-ranging changes alone.''
,,For me it was totally ok, but I noticed some of my colleagues looked at me a bit surprised. Well, I was a bit surprised. I didn’t see anything weird about being father and staying at home. Men can stay at home and share the work equally.''
,,I don´t see any ´female´ architecture per se. But I see architecture as architecture of a political landscape that either includes women in discussion, discourse, production or not. That makes a difference.''
,,We are recreating women role models communicating Modern era. I find it especially important in our times when we stay isolated with our computers and phones. These were women who used to touch materials, people, dreams. So we communicate. Through the university, publications, platforms and events like this.''
''Some people say that for a woman who is successful, life „up there“ is cold and empty, because she has to be very hard. If it is really where it goes, then I prefer not to do this job.“
Julia Nuler
I don’t want to be successful as the system defines it. I want to feel alive and I like to speak with journalists, students or people in the planet because we need a critical mass of free thinkers who believe we can change the world. That we can do something to be happier, to bring back hope. I think change will come from the bottom up, but we need to build many examples.
I am talking about about Holistic Villages where people can live with values, the environment, the sun. We have to do it because most of today’s politicians, teachers, and authors live in a comfort zone.
‘‘To us, this poses the question about how to utilise, reuse and delay water as a resource and for irrigation. Pipelines are old and outdated, too many creeks have been piped, and too many areas have hard surfaces. With sunlight we must ask ourselves – where can we collect solar energy and utilise it to create energy?’’