Being-two in an Architectural Perspective: Conversation between Luce Irigaray and Andrea Wheeler
First published in Luce Irigaray: Conversations in 2008, now with an introduction by Andrea Wheeler (Assistant Professor of Architecture, Iowa State University, USA).
I attended the talk of Luce Irigaray at the International Architectural Association in London in November 2000, ‘How can we live together in a lasting way?’Luce Irigaray then set out, to a very large and attentive audience, how architects could care about relations between people, and particularly about love, through building. She explained that architects do not take into consideration sufficiently the question of ‘the closeness with the other’, above all an other who is different, in the home. And she explained how this problem is crucial for us being able to live together. One of her most innovative proposals was to rebuild the home, starting with two small one-room apartments, which would replace the conventional shared dining-room, lounge and bedroom in order to make room for what is\one’s own world and for closeness with the other, for the individual’s singularity as well as for the foundation or re-foundation of a community, beginning with that of the couple or the family. She developed the idea of how each one-room apartment could be arranged according to the singularity of each person, especially that of a man and of a woman. This published talk (in Luce Irigaray: Key Writing, 2004),  contains really stimulating ideas for creation in dwelling and in building. Read more . . .

(Article reproduced with permission of the publishers)