Books by Alexandra Staub
The Routledge Companion to Modernity, Space and Gender reframes the discussion of modernity, spac... more The Routledge Companion to Modernity, Space and Gender reframes the discussion of modernity, space and gender; examining how "modernity" has been defined in various cultural contexts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, how this definition has been expressed spatially and architecturally, and what effect this has had on women in their everyday lives. In doing so, this volume presents theories and methods for understanding space and gender as they relate to the development of cities, urban space, and individual building types (such as housing, work spaces, or commercial spaces) in both the creation of and resistance to social transformations and modern global capitalism. The book contains a diverse range of case studies from the UK, US, Europe, and Asian countries such as China and India, which bring together a multiplicity of approaches to a continuing and common issue and reinforces the need for alternatives to the existing theoretical canon.
Nation-states have long used representational architecture to create symbolic identities for publ... more Nation-states have long used representational architecture to create symbolic identities for public consumption both at home and abroad. Government buildings, major ensembles and urban plans have a visibility that lends them authority, while their repeated portrayals in the media cement their image as icons of a shared national character. Existing in tandem with this official self, however, is a second, often divergent identity, represented by the vast realm of domestic space defined largely by those who occupy it as well as those with a vested interest in its cultural meaning. Using both historical inquiry and visual, spatial and film analysis, this book explores the interaction of these two identities, and its effect on political control, class status, and gender roles.
Conflicted Identities examines the politicization of both public and domestic space, especially in societies undergoing rapid cultural transformation through political, social or economic expansion or restructuring, when cultural identity is being rapidly "modernized", shifted, or realigned to conform to new demands. Using specific examples from a variety of national contexts, the book examines how vernacular housing, legislation, marketing, and media influence a large, but often underexposed domestic culture that runs parallel to a more publicly represented one. As a case in point, the book examines West Germany from the end of World War II to the early 1970s to probe more deeply into the mechanisms of such cultural dichotomy. On a national level, post-war West Germany demonstratively rejected Nazi-era values by rebuilding cities based on interwar modernist tenets, while choosing a decidedly modern and transparent architecture for high-visibility national projects. In the domestic realm, government, media and everyday citizens countered this turn to state-sponsored modernism by embracing traditional architectural aesthetics and housing that encouraged patriarchal family structures.
Written for readers interested in cultural theory, history, and the politics of space as well as those engaged with architecture and the built environment, Conflicted Identities provides an engaging new perspective on power and identity as they relate to architectural settings.
Papers by Alexandra Staub
Journal of Urban History, Mar 1, 2005
St. Petersburg, Russia, consists of a historical city from the eighteenth and nineteenth centurie... more St. Petersburg, Russia, consists of a historical city from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries surrounded by vast socialist housing estates constructed after World War II. This article describes the city’s planned pedestrian circulation systems, contrasting them with a second spatial system that the populace has throughout time superimposed on the “official” city and that may be mapped less in a physical than in a sociological sense. In this second city, steeped in communistic values, the threshold between what was once public and private has become redefined, so that the public now enters once-private spaces at will. This article compares the two structures of St. Petersburg and examines how they may be tied into theoretical frameworks of sociospatial mapping.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 9, 2018
Housing typologies in China have changed dramatically over the past hundred years. Economic liber... more Housing typologies in China have changed dramatically over the past hundred years. Economic liberalization is accelerating these changes, shifting the understanding of housing in ways that cannot be explained through Western housing theory. Most of China is moving towards housing in “sealed residential quarters” (gated communities), yet these communities have a role and significance very different from those in the West. Historical analysis of housing types in China brings out the ingrained role of enclosing walls in housing, a cultural value that is centuries old yet being given new meaning through the introduction of Western-style, developer-driven housing estates. This is contrasted by a Western understanding of urban systems as consisting of interlocking spaces and flows, where social interchanges may be initiated or sustained. To explore this interplay, we examine two communities in the industrial city of Shenyang, analyzing the role that their outdoor spaces play for the resid...
This paper compares two sets of planning paradigms in the Soviet Union and the United States. The... more This paper compares two sets of planning paradigms in the Soviet Union and the United States. The projects analyzed are Mikhail Barshch and Moisei Ginzburg’s Zelenyi Gorod (“Green City”) of 1930, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City of 1935, the anonymously planned Soviet mikrorayon , and William Drummond’s competition entry for a neighborhood unit in Chicago, completed in 1913. The first two projects both propose dissolving the large city and dispersing the population across the land, while the second two envision cities composed of hierarchically structured communities with shared facilities. The paper highlights both the striking similarities and differences between the projects created in two very different national contexts.
This paper examines Germany’s federally funded experimental building programs as cultural determi... more This paper examines Germany’s federally funded experimental building programs as cultural determiners and transformers. An analysis of studies and reports to sponsors of the past twenty years brings to light that from the urban environment to the architectural object, both tangible spatial objects and the process of their creation have become part of a culture of building that can successfully be guided through direct intervention. The paper concludes with suggesting further policy areas where this process can be implemented. The process of focusing culture Germany has a long tradition of experimental building programs. Starting in the 1920s with social questions of providing housing for the masses and technical ones of how to get there, the focus in recent decades has turned to urban and suburban settlement patterns, sustainable building practices and ecologically sound living concepts – paradigms that have become critical in other European countries and the United States as well. ...
Cultural production finds constant reinforcement through the built environment, yet defining what... more Cultural production finds constant reinforcement through the built environment, yet defining what “culture” is has become an increasingly contentious in recent years. In the United States, the rise of segregated physical spaces and the accompanying social stratification in the form of gated communities and pseudo-public spaces that attract homogenous communities has been well documented. Popularly, such segregation is linked to “living in a bubble”, in which different cultural norms within a society become isolated. Despite problems associated with such isolation, such as economic stratification and social intolerance, few architects and planners have addressed how the accompanying cultural production paradigms are related to the production of the built environment, and the architect’s role in this process. This paper uses a variation of stakeholder theory to explore the consequences of our designs. Stakeholder theory, first proposed by R. Edward Freedman in the 1980s, states that i...
Housing and the Politics of Cultural Representation (Routledge Research in Architecture) Alexandr... more Housing and the Politics of Cultural Representation (Routledge Research in Architecture) Alexandra Staub Nation-states have long used representational architecture to create symbolic identities for public consumption both at home and abroad. Government buildings, major ensembles and urban plans have a visibility that lends them authority, while their repeated portrayals in the media cement their image as icons of a shared national character. Existing in tandem with this official self, however, is a second, often divergent identity, represented by the vast realm of domestic space defined largely by those who occupy it as well as those with a vested interest in its cultural meaning. Using both historical inquiry and visual, spatial and film analysis, this book explores the interaction of these two identities, and its effect on political control, class status, and gender roles. Conflicted Identities examines the politicization of both public and domestic space, especially in societies undergoing rapid cultural transformation through political, social or economic expansion or restructuring, when cultural identity is being rapidly "modernized", shifted, or realigned to conform to new demands. Using specific examples from a variety of national contexts, the book examines how vernacular housing, legislation, marketing, and media influence a large, but often underexposed domestic culture that runs parallel to a more publicly represented one. As a case in point, the book examines West Germany from the end of World War II to the early 1970s to probe more deeply into the mechanisms of such cultural dichotomy. On a national level, postwar West Germany demonstratively rejected Nazi-era values by rebuilding cities based on interwar modernist tenets, while choosing a decidedly modern and transparent architecture for high-visibility national projects. In the domestic realm, government, media and everyday citizens countered this turn to state-sponsored modernism by embracing traditional architectural aesthetics and housing that encouraged patriarchal family structures. Written for readers interested in cultural theory, history, and the politics of space as well as those engaged with architecture and the built environment, Conflicted Identities provides an engaging new perspective on power and identity as they relate to architectural settings.
This publication, Investing for Impact, is a key outcome of Project 2.7 Leveraging R&... more This publication, Investing for Impact, is a key outcome of Project 2.7 Leveraging R&D Investment for the Australian Built Environment. This information will be included in a more comprehensive book being prepared for publication in 2014 (Taylor and Francis). It draws together research findings and case studies from CIB Task Group 85 members from across the globe, highlighting their diversity and similarities. The evaluation of international case studies on the role and impact of R&D on national development has allowed us to demonstrate examples from different sectors of the built environment of R&D investment models that provide return on investment and other benefits for companies, governments and the general community.
Journal of Urban History, 2005
St. Petersburg, Russia, consists of a historical city from the eighteenth and nineteenth centurie... more St. Petersburg, Russia, consists of a historical city from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries surrounded by vast socialist housing estates constructed after World War II. This article describes the city’s planned pedestrian circulation systems, contrasting them with a second spatial system that the populace has throughout time superimposed on the “official” city and that may be mapped less in a physical than in a sociological sense. In this second city, steeped in communistic values, the threshold between what was once public and private has become redefined, so that the public now enters once-private spaces at will. This article compares the two structures of St. Petersburg and examines how they may be tied into theoretical frameworks of sociospatial mapping.
ARCC Conference Repository, Jul 31, 2014
Housing typologies in China have changed dramatically over the past hundred years. Economic liber... more Housing typologies in China have changed dramatically over the past hundred years. Economic liberalization is accelerating these changes, shifting the understanding of housing in ways that cannot be explained through Western housing theory. Most of China is moving towards housing in "sealed residential quarters" (gated communities), yet these communities have a role and significance very different from those in the West. Historical analysis of housing types in China brings out the ingrained role of enclosing walls in housing, a cultural value that is centuries old yet being given new meaning through the introduction of Western-style, developer-driven housing estates. This is contrasted by a Western understanding of urban systems as consisting of interlocking spaces and flows, where social interchanges may be initiated or sustained. To explore this interplay, we examine two communities in the industrial city of Shenyang, analyzing the role that their outdoor spaces play for the residents and their urban context. We find that the population readily accepts China's new, gated communities, even as they call into question the city beyond. This paper discusses several implications, both at the micro and the macro level.
The Routledge Companion to Modernity, Space and Gender, 2018
41 "Look children, how wonderful! An apartment with running water, private toilet, and balcony!" ... more 41 "Look children, how wonderful! An apartment with running water, private toilet, and balcony!" We had just moved in. I remember how my ecstatic mother almost flew across the empty living room of our new home onto the sunny balcony holding my little sister in her arms. 1 This is the way a man recalled his new childhood home of the early 1950s in the late 1990s, when more than 300 suburbanites recorded their written memories of suburban living in the Helsinki region from the 1950s to the 1970s. 2 Housing in Finland underwent a major change after World War II. New homes and their modern facilities revolutionized everyday life and held out optimistic promises of a better future. 3 The narrators repeatedly contrasted the luxuries of new spacious apartments with their previous inadequate dwellings. Modern conveniences such as piped water, indoor toilets, shining bathrooms, standardized kitchen fittings, and balconies symbolized the change and aroused feelings of joy and happiness. Both landscape and people were on the move as hundreds of thousands of new dwellings were constructed, from remote rural settlements to urban centers, and hundreds of thousands of people relocated to new home districts. The war had exacerbated the already existing urban housing shortage, as the economic recession had stopped almost all housing construction in the mid-1930s. Karelian refugees, more than 400,000 people (one-eighth of the total Finnish population) from the territories ceded to the Soviet Union, had to be resettled, and ex-servicemen, numerous new families established after the war, and the growing urban population needed new homes. The emergence of new kinds of domestic and urban spaces fundamentally changed the Finnish landscape, housing customs, and the details of daily life affecting the space, time, and bodies of inhabitants. Postwar housing construction led to the wholesale modernization of Finnish housing. The modernist principles of spatial differentiation and the urban middle-class ideals of habitation that had emerged since the late 1920s were applied both indoors and outdoors. The postwar (re)construction of housing had two solutions. The reconstruction began in the countryside. Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, the one-and-a-half-story standardized wooden one-family houses, nicknamed "veterans' houses," provided the main solution for new homes both in rural areas and population centers. The volume of urban construction only caught up with rural levels in 1956. 4 Until the 1970s, the principal solution for urban habitation was the suburban apartment close to nature (Figure 3.1).
Architectural Research Addressing Societal Challenges, 2017
Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften
Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg übernahmen die Alliierten zunächst die politische Verantwortung über D... more Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg übernahmen die Alliierten zunächst die politische Verantwortung über Deutschland; es folgten Entscheidungen über Politik, Presse, das Ausbildungssystem und die Gewerkschaft en. 1 Die USA, als dominierende Besatzungsmacht im Gebiet der Bundesrepublik, nutzte unter anderem den Marshallplan dazu, politische und gesellschaft liche Änderungen herbeizuführen. In den frühen Jahren des Kalten Krieges war es das Ziel, die Bundesrepublik als verlässlichen Partner in ein westliches Wirtschaft ssystem einzubinden. Um dies umzusetzen, versuchte man das deutsche Kaufverhalten zu beeinfl ussen: Ähnlich wie in den USA sollten die Verbraucher in Deutschland die Freuden des Konsums erleben. Das Einfamilienhaus als Eigenheim, vor dem Krieg für die kleinen Leute nahezu unvorstellbar, wurde ein Teil dieser Politik. Vom bürgerlichen Landsitz zum Häuschen im Grünen Eine Traditionslinie des Anziehungsobjekts ›Einfamilienhaus‹ führt aus den USA und Deutschland gleichermaßen nach Großbritannien, in dessen hierarchischem Klassensystem ein Landsitz, wie er in der Aristokratie üblich war, für höchsten gesellschaft lichen Status stand. Durch die Rezeption englischer Wertvorstellungen in den USA, die sich in der Architektur bereits in der andauernden Beliebtheit von Stilrichtungen wie ›Tudor‹, 1 Über den Einfl uss der USA auf die bundesdeutsche Nachkriegskultur und-institutionen ist viel geschrieben worden, siehe z.
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Books by Alexandra Staub
Conflicted Identities examines the politicization of both public and domestic space, especially in societies undergoing rapid cultural transformation through political, social or economic expansion or restructuring, when cultural identity is being rapidly "modernized", shifted, or realigned to conform to new demands. Using specific examples from a variety of national contexts, the book examines how vernacular housing, legislation, marketing, and media influence a large, but often underexposed domestic culture that runs parallel to a more publicly represented one. As a case in point, the book examines West Germany from the end of World War II to the early 1970s to probe more deeply into the mechanisms of such cultural dichotomy. On a national level, post-war West Germany demonstratively rejected Nazi-era values by rebuilding cities based on interwar modernist tenets, while choosing a decidedly modern and transparent architecture for high-visibility national projects. In the domestic realm, government, media and everyday citizens countered this turn to state-sponsored modernism by embracing traditional architectural aesthetics and housing that encouraged patriarchal family structures.
Written for readers interested in cultural theory, history, and the politics of space as well as those engaged with architecture and the built environment, Conflicted Identities provides an engaging new perspective on power and identity as they relate to architectural settings.
Papers by Alexandra Staub
Conflicted Identities examines the politicization of both public and domestic space, especially in societies undergoing rapid cultural transformation through political, social or economic expansion or restructuring, when cultural identity is being rapidly "modernized", shifted, or realigned to conform to new demands. Using specific examples from a variety of national contexts, the book examines how vernacular housing, legislation, marketing, and media influence a large, but often underexposed domestic culture that runs parallel to a more publicly represented one. As a case in point, the book examines West Germany from the end of World War II to the early 1970s to probe more deeply into the mechanisms of such cultural dichotomy. On a national level, post-war West Germany demonstratively rejected Nazi-era values by rebuilding cities based on interwar modernist tenets, while choosing a decidedly modern and transparent architecture for high-visibility national projects. In the domestic realm, government, media and everyday citizens countered this turn to state-sponsored modernism by embracing traditional architectural aesthetics and housing that encouraged patriarchal family structures.
Written for readers interested in cultural theory, history, and the politics of space as well as those engaged with architecture and the built environment, Conflicted Identities provides an engaging new perspective on power and identity as they relate to architectural settings.
This paper uses a variation of stakeholder theory to explore the consequences of our designs. Stakeholder theory, first proposed by R. Edward Freedman in the 1980s, states that in order to succeed, companies should create value for all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, financiers, and the community – and not just shareholders. Extended to the process by which the built environment is created, this means that the effects of our building patterns and practices must be considered through the lens of all possible stakeholders in order to produce successful projects. The first step is to gain a fuller understanding of a project’s short and long-term social and cultural ramifications. Using a method adopted from principled negotiation in which stakeholders and their interests are identified in order to develop scenarios by which a majority of interests can be accommodated, this paper will analyze several recent building projects in the United States to assess their impact on cultural production.