Alice Constance Austin - City Planning and Modern Feminist Design

City Planning and Modern Feminist Design

Austin proposed using a system of underground tunnels for laundry, a hot meal delivery service, commuters, and for the transportation of supplies and goods. This would result in less domestic housework, easier childcare, less road traffic, and free women from the traditional household duties, which could allow them to fully enter the public sphere, or non domestic world. She also included built-in furniture, roll away beds, and heated tile floors, which would reduce housework such as vacuuming and increase functionality in a limited space.

She also planned to change several things in the traditional domestic sphere. Her introduction of the kitchenless house, supported by the underground tunnel system, was efficient for women because it eliminated long hours of labor preparing meals for the family. A kitchenless house could theoretically promote healthier family interaction and care.

The garden city movement of Ebenezer Howard and the feminist influence of Charlotte Perkins Gilman helped inspire Austin’s designs. In the public sphere, Austin chose to promote safety and affordability, as illustrated through her plans for public parks and low-income homes for women in need (either due to abuse, divorce, etc.). In the private sphere, she designed for comfort, efficiency, functionality, and collective domestic housework, which would reduce domestic labor in the home.