Spatial Infrastructures for Women Between Reproductive, Productive and Care Labour

Historical Readings and New Design Perspectives The shifting dichotomy between productive and reproductive labour has been at the centre of feminist and transfeminist debate since the middle of Sixties (Mitchell, 1966; Benston, 1969, Morton, 1971; Dalla Costa, 1972; Federici, 1975). The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have generated a new wave of reflection when the home, once again, became a place of spatial overlap of different activity: work, sport, school, care (The Care Collective, 2020). The Fordist revolution split the productive and reproductive apparatus into well-defined spatial domains, on the one hand, the factory or the office, and on the other, the home, considered the realm of the ‘full-time’ housewife. Towards the end of the 19th century and for much of the 20th, the home is the place where another capital is accumulated, linked to childcare, space maintenance and food preparation. Early examples of the externalisation of domestic tasks, in order to free women appeared at the beginning of the 20th century by several utopians, researchers and designers who rethought the home through the collectivisation of certain essential services for the family - such as cooking, washing and ironing laundry, managing household chores, looking after children. Starting from this theoretical background, the paper puts domesticity under siege by changing the perspective and examining some projects that showed a different way of living. It will look at the Frauen-Werk-Stadt I [Women Work City], a revolutionary housing project built in Vienna between 1995-1997, and then the paper will focus on contemporary examples of the externalization of domestic tasks from a female perspective. Today, remote work, which was strongly experienced during the pandemic, brought these two forms of labor together in the domestic space with new effects on women and carers. If the emergency phase has shown the limits of the work and space overlap that has particularly affected women, it has, however, brought forth new possibilities for the design of places between the home and the street that can act as ‘social infrastructures’ through which to build and care for community (Forino, 2019, 2022). This paper argues that such a vision requires rethinking the boundaries and functions of domestic and communal spaces, challenging traditional gender roles and reimagining the urban environment as a dynamic site for care and collaboration. By examining both historical and contemporary examples, it seeks to illuminate how spatial design can address the evolving needs of society, particularly in fostering inclusivity and shared responsibility.