After the WIA November Monthly Committee Meeting announcements, Swati Jain, the founder of Unknown Space, architectural designer, and artist, presented her research on communal kitchens and their potential impact on gender equality; she also showed a clip of her film on the subject, “Kitchen Evolution”, which has been exhibited at The Kitchen NYC, SAWCC, and The Tank and has been distributed by Mubi, New Filmmakers NY and Printed Matter in New York. Her research has centered on how architecture can break the kitchen from an enclosed space that enforces gender roles to an expansive community space to facilitate a fluidity in responsibilities.

Swati showed many examples from recent design history, including Tokyo Nomad Women by Toyo Ito and Sejima, Philips Microbial Home, and Kitchen 139, a ten-day communal kitchen experiment. She also included a case study on Langar Kitchens in Queens, a shared cooking space associated with a gurudwara where people visit to pray and volunteer to work in the kitchens.

The WIA Committee will not meet in December due to the holiday break. Please enjoy the WIA November Monthly Committee Meeting Agenda here, and we look forward to seeing you at our 12/5 WIA Speed Mentoring event or at our January Committee Meeting in 2024!

Thank you all for your support of the WIA Committee, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!