Women’s Environmental Fantasies

Women’s fantasy environments were a series of workshops and research led by Phyllis Birkby in the 70s. The workshop was very simple in its methodology, Birkby unrolled sheets of butcher paper and asked women to “imagine and draw their ideal living spaces, free of pragmatic constraints.” Birkby has said that the drawings proved very valuable for both the maker of the image and for herself as its facilitator, the very process of making the images was a consciousness-raising experience. The cumulative result was a trove of images and symbols many women can identify with. But while these images can be seen as a point of arrival, they should also be seen as a point of departure. Fantasy is often the stage where women remain for lack of opportunities. The city is filled with men’s fantasy architecture, and the implied message of the workshop is to take control of space, space being at once the container of and a metaphor for life itself, as women. It was rewarding to see in the drawings evidence of women taking control of space to meet their own needs, emotions, and desires. In doing so, women are building on their own and other women's fantasies. Although the visions and processes presented here record individual endeavors, they provide us with the hope that is needed to move and build beyond idle dreams and desires. When we see that these individual solutions are not singular but exemplary, we realize that what is possible for one becomes possible for all. And what works for one woman's needs may be translated, as these projects suggest, and expanded to meet the needs of a group. The form achieved is both personal and collective, resonating with common meanings as it is communicated to others.