i started this year by researching the discrepancies between genders in public space. this shortly led me to see that females were relayed into the private, domestic sphere.

looking at my grandmother’s home to be able to create a visual representation of how the two genders coexisted in a post republican home. to do this i first conducted interviews with members of my father’s family and then created a model of the house which became a spatial interviewing method.

i took the model and asked women coming from different backgrounds to imagine their ideal living situation using the pieces provided. each of them created, or recreated the way that they performed their gender. this became a powerful method to unearth conversations in which women could discuss how and why they made their designs the way they did.

this timeline helped me understand how the architectural landscape of the domestic interior changed in time. it also allowed me to observe the effects that new policies and technological advancements created in family life.

the plan besides shows the male and female characters occupying the flat throughout a typical day.

whilst there are more females in the home. the post republican home reflects the division between the productive workplace and the non-productive intimacy of the home.

this is made visible through the female being excluded from any interaction when carrying out domestic chores.

where the house itself becomes divided into served and servant spaces, latter of which is occupied by the women (often referred to in turkish as the ministers of interior relations).

The way in which the model of the house was rearranged differed based on education level, occupation and age. Where women who did not have access to higher levels of education placed the kitchen completely separately to the living room.With women who have had access to higher levels of education, the placement of the kitchen starts having easier access to the living room. And the usage of hallways become more intentional, to separate the sleeping quarters.In younger generations and when the socio economic level gets higher the kitchen starts getting placed within the living room. This allows these women to perform their gender quite differently than in houses where there is spatial male hegemony and domestic work becomes ingrained in the choreography of the female.