In this lecture I will examine some aspects of architectural practice through the conceptual framework of ‘care’. Care ethics sets a person’s relationship to another at the heart of related debates. In my recently published book “Architecture and Care”, it is used as a tool for exploring ethical aspects of a recent, international trend in social architecture, in which architects attempt to provide spatial solutions for needs ignored by both governments and private market. Rooted in feminism, care ethics serves as the theoretical background against which two architectural projects are examined in the lecture: the Levinsky Garden Library project, built for migrant workers and asylum seekers in Tel Aviv; and the Wadi Abu Hindi school, renovated for Bedouin communities in Area C.
In addition to architectural projects for marginalized group, the presentation will investigate in-place aging of seniors who live with caretakers, immigrants to Israel from poorer countries. In the transition to domestic care, the moral agency has moved from the architects—who planned the building for families with children decades ago—to the elderly, who make new use of these spaces as a space for caregiving. My postdoctoral research, under the guidance of professor Yael Allweil, explores the potential of a planning proposal—dividing the seniors’ apartment into a primary apartment and a secondary unit—suggested by a government team and by an academic-social organization.
I will apply the political scientist Joan Tronto’s concept of care, not only in consideration of the ethical motivations of architects and social organizations, but also in the projects’ design, addressing the perspectives, needs and abilities of their users.