Architecture as a social and cultural agent – the significance of birthplaces

An examination of places of/for birth through an interdisciplinary approach that spans

the fields of architecture, anthropology, sociology and medicine - employing a feminist
point of view.

How does space interact with the body and medical-scientific practices to form
our conceptions of childbirth and women’s role in it?
The decipherment of the rituals and meanings that surround childbirth as they
are enacted in the places of/for birth hold a key to the guiding values of “our”
culture.
Key questions in this study include the territorial claims on the place of birth,
the power and responsibility of decision-making in the birth process depending
on the place of birth, the role of place and spatial characteristics in birth
practices, the effects of space on the birth process, the significance of the re-
emergence of homebirth, the political implications of the current medical
system of maternity care in Greece and its spatial materialization.
These issues are examined in a field research project that is also
interdisciplinary in its use of research methods: “objective” data such as
drawings, photographs, building legislation, birth statistics, are combined with
ethnography, with qualitative social research methods such as interviews and
field observation in maternity clinics in a provincial town in Greece.
The anthropology and the sociology of space meet the architecture of
experience: they are explored through the narratives of those directly involved
with the event of birth in the assigned places. All these fields are informed by a
detailed knowledge of conventional and alternative birth practices in Greece and
abroad and their varied results for mothers and babies.
The limits of architecture are expanded to include direct experience and an
awareness of how space is not only materially but also socially produced, how
social interactions, social norms and values are inscribed in, interact with, and
are affected and reproduced by spatial arrangements.
An increased awareness of the importance of spatial experience by both
designers and by by those directly involved with childbirth could, ideally,
contribute to the formulation of new tools for the design of birthplaces based
on the direct experience of the persons involved and an analysis of the
interactions between social agents and the environment. A reconfiguration of
the spaces for birth can utilize the emancipatory potential of architectural
design to allow for an empowering birth experience, which, as noted by numerous
feminist scholars, can have wide-ranging political implications.
Myrto Chronaki
architect, DipArch University College London UK
PhD candidate, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Greece
Konstanta 262, Volos 3822, Greece
Tel. +30 24210 30758, e-mail: myrto.ch@gmail.com