Performing history and theory through design, the research aims to establish Christine as the first speculative female architect and to project the powerful message of her allegorical city into the future. It proposes an innovative, design-led analysis of the architectural and urban allegory in her text and a spatial remodelling of the accompanying illuminations (miniature illustrations). Our research builds upon existing scholarship on the relationship between image and text in Christine’s work. Her work has been seen as a proto-feminist manifesto, conflating the act of building with collecting stories of notable female figures from fiction and history and erecting a thesis against misogyny. In her celebrated text, The Book of the City of Ladies, 1405, Christine describes the construction of an imaginary city, a female utopia built and inhabited by women. 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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |