Problem

The world of a town in the 1970’s is split along sexual lines. Suburbs are for women, workplaces for men; kindergartens are for women, professional schools for men; supermarkets are for women, hardware stores for men.

Solution

Make certain the each piece of the environment—each building, open space, neighborhood, and work community—is made with a blend of both men’s and women’s instincts. Keep this balance of masculine and feminine in mind for every project at every scale, from the kitchen to the steel mill.

… and just as a community or neighborhood must have a proper balance of activities for people of all different ages — Community of 7000 (12), Identifiable Neighborhood (14), Life Cycle (26) — so it must also adjust itself and its activities to the balance of the sexes, and provide, in equal part, the things which reflect the masculine and feminine sides of life.

No large housing areas without workshops for men; no work communities which do not provide for women with part-time jobs and child care — Scattered Work (9). Within each place which has a balance of the masculine and feminine, make sure that individual men and women also have room to flourish, in their own right, distinct and separate from their opposites — A Room of One’s Own (141)


Reference for full-text of Pattern: p. 146low-confidence