Gender sensitive design & urban planning

Research, training, design, planning and public participation consultancies

WPS Prague (CZ)

March 2015 - current

In Central Europe, the architectural and urban planning practice usually serves well those who are healthy and economically active. But when we consider demographics, working and economically active people make up just over half of the entire urban population. Senior citizens and young people under the age of 18 comprise the rest. Trends also show that our population is ageing and when we overlay gender and ethnicity, the user groups significantly diverge. Each of them has different needs.

How do we ensure a city that offers a fair-share to everyone?

WPS Prague is an independent non-partisan network for women (but not only women) from diverse urban-related professions to share and exchange their personal and professional experiences and support to promote the professional activities of women who are experts in the fields of architecture, urban planning, urban design, community life, education, cultural activities, art and research related to increasing the quality of life in public spaces.

WPS Prague was established in March 2015 with the great support of many excellent women and men around me, to name a few: Veronika Fajmonova, Kristyna Stara, Tereza Stockelova, Monika Grilli-Wagnerova, Zdenka Lammelova, Marcela Linkova, Cecil Balmond and Adam Greenfield. Among the people who deeply inspired me in the field of social justice and gender sensitivity in urban planning are, above all, Eva Kail, an urban planner and gender expert who stood behind whole movement in Vienna for the past 25 years; architect Gabu Heindl who became my mentor and friend; landscape architect Laura P. Spinadel who has had a remarkably strong path and always found her way in tough architectural business and life and, last but not least, Renate Kaufmann, a politician who (as she says) in politics loves to fight for the right causes. She is responsible for the implementation of gender mainstreaming principles in the 6th Viennese district and other policies, especially sensitive towards women living in cites.