Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com
Image from Google Jackets

Building sex : men, women, and the construction of sexuality / Aaron Betsky.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : William Morrow, c1995.Edition: 1st edDescription: xix, 236 p. : ill. ; 23 cmISBN:
  • 0688149502 (pbk).
  • 9780688149505 (pbk.)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 720.103 BET  20 005119
LOC classification:
  • NA2543.W65 B48 1995
Online resources: Summary: Buildings have always been an expression of human sexuality. In this book, architecture critic and curator Aaron Betsky takes a look at the man-made world and concludes that it is just that: made by men and not women. The structure of buildings and the layout of cities in the modern world have almost always been determined by men, and the abstract and alien order of grids and columns that has resulted imprisons us in a way of living based on repression and, in some cases, oppression.Summary: By contrast, it is women who create the interior spaces within these man-created environments. Comfortable, beautiful, seductive, and logical, these interiors act as areas of escape, self-definition, and sometimes even revelation.Summary: Drawing on a wide range of architectural examples, from African mud huts to modern apartment complexes, Betsky explores what effects this division of architectural labor has had on our sensibilities and, indeed, on how we relate to one another as men and women. He believes that although it has always been thus, we do not have to live within this dichotomy between the exterior and the interior, the made and the lived, the masculine and the feminine, forever.Summary: It is possible, says Betsky, to create "spaces of liberation, spaces in which we can re-construct our selves and our world."
Star ratings
    Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore 720.103 BET 005119 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 005119

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Buildings have always been an expression of human sexuality. In this book, architecture critic and curator Aaron Betsky takes a look at the man-made world and concludes that it is just that: made by men and not women. The structure of buildings and the layout of cities in the modern world have almost always been determined by men, and the abstract and alien order of grids and columns that has resulted imprisons us in a way of living based on repression and, in some cases, oppression.

By contrast, it is women who create the interior spaces within these man-created environments. Comfortable, beautiful, seductive, and logical, these interiors act as areas of escape, self-definition, and sometimes even revelation.

Drawing on a wide range of architectural examples, from African mud huts to modern apartment complexes, Betsky explores what effects this division of architectural labor has had on our sensibilities and, indeed, on how we relate to one another as men and women. He believes that although it has always been thus, we do not have to live within this dichotomy between the exterior and the interior, the made and the lived, the masculine and the feminine, forever.

It is possible, says Betsky, to create "spaces of liberation, spaces in which we can re-construct our selves and our world."

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.