Stepping Out
Women from minority backgrounds often face disadvantages in urban settings due to intersecting racial, gender, and economic challenges. Based in Birmingham, this project aims to challenge traditional urban narratives and advocate for more inclusive and equitable urban experiences through a feminist analysis of the Flâneur. By exploring the concept of the Flâneuse, the female counterpart to the Flâneur, it investigates how women navigate urban spaces and make autonomous choices about accessing areas beyond the home, free from safety concerns and social norms.
By embodying the role of the Flâneuse as a means of exploration, the research lays the foundation for masterplanning analysis. It identifies areas of interest and proposes feminist-informed interventions, drawing on various interpretations of the Flâneuse archetype across different media. These interventions aim to enhance women's agency and participation in urban environments by introducing playful and unexpected elements, transforming and reimagining urban spaces with spontaneity and creativity.
The project creatively uses existing materials to implement interventions with different functions, whether temporary, fixed, or movable. Temporary interventions activate public spaces for short periods, fixed installations make streets safer and more welcoming, and movable elements bring services to different neighbourhoods as needed. By combining these approaches, the project creates flexible and dynamic urban spaces inspired by the concept of the Flâneuse.
