City of Ladies
Examining the role of the female imagination in the creation of the city, by performing history and theory through design, digital animation, drawing and making.
Research | Allegorical City
The City of Ladies is a cross-disciplinary research project which aims to introduce and promote the work of medieval author Christine de Pizan to an architectural audience for the first time. In her text “The Book of the City of Ladies” (1405), de Pizan describes the construction of an imaginary city, a female utopia built and inhabited by women. Conflating the act of writing a book and the construction of an imaginary city with building a thesis against misogyny, her work has been seen as a proto–feminist manifesto.
Led by Prof Penelope Haralambidou, the project expands upon existing scholarship to propose an innovative, design-led analysis of the architectural and urban allegory in de Pizan’s text, as well as a spatial remodelling of the accompanying illuminations (miniature illustrations) - rebuilding the city using contemporary technologies. It aims to establish Christine as the first speculative female architect and to project the powerful message of her allegorical city into the future.
With:
Prof Penelope Haralambidou
Supported by:
The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
The British Academy / Leverhulme Trust
Year:
2018 - Present
Sound Design:
Photography:
Andy Keate
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Developed together with a physical installation, the film component of the project places Christine’s allegory in an unidentified future context, and re-imagines the genesis of the city. Drawing from visual and sonic tropes within science fiction, the camera moves along an unknown path, travelling from the void of outer space to the interior of the body, ultimately landing in the gallery space back in the present day.
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As a method of investigation to reconstruct the city, the illuminations present in the manuscript were digitally projected into three dimensions as accurately as possible and 3D printed at their original drawn scale, allowing a viewer to figuratively enter them.
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In her text, de Pizan appears as a figure in the narrative as well as the author; and is visited by three virtues who offer her objects to help build her city – a mirror, a ruler and a vessel. Each guide the construction of the city, and act as narrative devices allowing the virtues to strengthen Christine's faith in womanhood. The objects were remade in an architectural context. For example, the ruler considered data biased towards men, and offered an inherently feminine unit of measurement based upon the dimensions of the female hand.
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