Jos Boys

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Jos Boys is an architecture-trained, activist, educator, artist and writer. [1] [2] She was a founder member of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative and co-author of their 1984 book Making Space: Women and the Man-Made Environment (Pluto Press 1984/Verso 2022). [3] [4] Since 2008 she has been co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project [5] with disabled artist Zoe Partington, [6] a disability-led platform that works with disabled artists to explore new ways to think about disability in architectural and design discourse and practice. [7] [8] [9] [10]

Contents

Her books Doing Disability Differently: an Alternative Handbook on Architecture, Dis/ability and Designing for Everyday Life (Routledge 2014) [11] [12] [13] and Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader (Routledge 2017) [14] have become key texts in this field, with the latter called a "brilliant gathering of texts, both synthetic and surprising [that] should be taught in every architecture and design program, and may well become the new standard text for interdisciplinary disability studies courses generally" (Susan Schweik, Professor of English and Disability Studies, UC Berkeley). [15] Boys is also co-editor with Anthony Clarke and John Gardner of Neurodivergence and Architecture. [16]

She has given numerous international keynote talks, including at The Bartlett UCL (2021), Arizona State (2021), [17] Goldsmiths (2020), UTS Sydney (2020), [18] the Design Museum London (2019), [19] Melbourne University School of Design (2019), [20] University of Innsbruck (2019), [21] Yale University School of Architecture (2018), [22] Victoria and Albert Museum (2018), [23] Aarhus University Copenhagen (2017), Architectural Association London (2016), [24] University of the Arts, London (2016) and the Taylor Institute, University of Calgary (2016).

Boys has been a visiting professor at Ulster and London Metropolitan Universities. [25] She has been a Design Council Built Environment Expert (BEE) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; is Guest Professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen and an honorary associate professor in the Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, UCL. Jos Boys was one of the BBC’s Women of the Year 2021. [26]

Career

Jos Boys is currently working as co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project, enabled by funding from The Supporting Act Foundation for 2024-5. [27] [28] Previously she worked at The Bartlett Faculty of Built Environment, University College London where she was Course Director of the MSc in Learning Environments. [1] Before that, she worked for over 10 years as an independent Learning Environment consultant and researcher; and has written extensively about the complex and often contested inter-relationships between pedagogies, academic development, institutional policy and strategies, facilities planning and management, and building design. [29]   She has also worked as an educator [1] [25] in architecture and related disciplines across many institutions both in the UK and internationally, and as an academic developer and instructional designer. Underpinning this, as well as all her community-based design activism, [29] is a particular interest in how to improve our understanding of everyday social, material and spatial practices, in support of the most disadvantaged in society. All her work explores how we can act across different perspectives and agendas to collaboratively discuss and improve built environments. [30] [31]

Jos Boys obtained her BSc at the Bartlett School UCL (then called the School of Environmental Studies) and has master's degrees in Advanced Architectural Studies (UCL 1981) and Photography (De Montfort University 2003). She obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Urban and Regional Studies, University of Reading entitled“ Concrete Visions? Examining inter-relationships between housing design, material practices and everyday life in England 1830 – 1980” in 2001. [1] Originally training as an architectural journalist for Building Design magazine, [29] she also undertook projects at the Greater London Council (GLC) writing guidance on Women and Planning; and at Women's Design Service [12] [32] where she was a development worker, with co-founders Vron Ware, Sue Cavanagh and Wendy Davis. Throughout her life Jos Boys has been involved with many feminist and related networks, including Cutting Edge, [33] a cross-disciplinary feminist research group exploring new design technologies, based at the University of Westminster (1995–2001), and the feminist spatial practices group Taking Place (2000– ). [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] Together with curator Jon Astbury, she co-created an exhibition about Matrix at the Barbican entitled How We Live Now: reimagining spaces with Matrix feminist design collective (May – December 2021), [40] as well as leading on the ongoing development of an open and accessible Matrix online archive. [41]

The archive has been accessed and displayed in national and international exhibitions including Found Cities Lost Objects (a touring Arts Council England show, co-curated with Lubaina Himid,) [42] in the Chronos: health, access and intimacy exhibition at Tensta Konsthalle Stockholm, [43] Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, University of Melbourne, [44] Oslo Architectural Biennale, [45] ETHL Lausanne, ETH Zurich, MAXXI and Newcastle University UK. [46]

Selected projects

Bibliography

Jos Boys' research, writing and teaching is concerned with understanding the social construction of 'normal' architectural and design education and practices; and about co-developing alternative forms of producing built spaces that instead start from difference, from the perceptions and experiences of marginalised groups, whether in education or other spaces. [24] [1] [25] There remains a lack of theoretical understanding as to how built space works, or its complex relationships to diverse occupation, whether for living, working or learning. [12] [3]  Boys' co-edited collections all aim to open up multiple perspectives and voices, so as to share approaches and attitudes; to critically reflect on different assumptions; and to work together to build better models for architecture as a discipline that based on social, spatial and material justice. [3]

Disability and Architecture

Learning Environments

Feminism and Architecture

Professional memberships

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 UCL (2018-10-31). "Dr Jos Boys". The Bartlett Real Estate Institute. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  2. ↑ Wright, Tim Powell (2019-10-17). "Jos Boys". Melbourne School of Design. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  3. 1 2 3 Boys, Jos; Matrix (1985). Making space: women and the man-made environment. London: Pluto Press. ISBN   978-0861046010. OCLC   929308261.
  4. ↑ Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative, ed. (2022). Making space: women and the man-made environment (New ed.). London New York: Verso. ISBN   978-1-83976-571-1.
  5. ↑ "Fem_Arc podcast 'Starting from difference with Zoe Partington and Jos Boys". YouTube.
  6. ↑ "Zoe Partington".
  7. ↑ "Jos Boys". THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  8. ↑ "Jos Boys, Author at The DisOrdinary Architecture Project". The DisOrdinary Architecture Project. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  9. ↑ "Disability and ability: towards a new understanding". Design Council. 2014-06-11. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  10. ↑ Boys, Jos (13 July 2014). "Doing disability differently". ribaj.com. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  11. ↑ Boys, Jos (2014). "Doing Disability Differently". Architectural Review. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  12. 1 2 3 Boys, Jos. (2014). Doing disability differently : an alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability and designing for everyday life. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-69382-6. OCLC   881034949.
  13. ↑ Imrie, Rob (2015-03-16). "Doing disability differently: an alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability and designing for everyday life". Disability & Society. 30 (3): 486–488. doi:10.1080/09687599.2014.995512. ISSN   0968-7599. S2CID   144209727.
  14. ↑ Disability, space, architecture : a reader. Boys, Jos. London. 2017. ISBN   978-1-138-67642-8. OCLC   956435158.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. ↑ "Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader". CRC Press. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  16. ↑ Clarke, Anthony; Boys, Jos; Gardner, John, eds. (2022). Neurodivergence and architecture. Developments in neuroethics and bioethics (First ed.). Cambridge, MA San Diego, CA Oxford London: Elsevier, Academic Press. ISBN   978-0-12-824562-0.
  17. ↑ "DisOrdinary Architecture: A Virtual Lecture by Dr. Jos Boys | ASU Events". asuevents.asu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  18. ↑ "How can we make the learning space an environment of care?". LX at UTS. 2023-04-27. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  19. ↑ Q42, Fabrique &. "Diversity in Design". Design Museum. Retrieved 2020-06-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ Wright, Tim Powell (2019-10-17). "Jos Boys". Melbourne School of Design. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  21. ↑ "Symposium Disability Studies and Participation in Higher Education" (PDF).
  22. ↑ "Noncompliant Bodies Social Equity And Public Space". Yale Architecture. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  23. ↑ "V&A · Disruptive Design: Disability Driving Architectural Innovation". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  24. 1 2 "AA XX 100 Jos Boys - Doing Dis/ability and Architecture Differently?". YouTube.
  25. 1 2 3 "Jos Boys - London Metropolitan University". londonmet.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  26. ↑ UCL (2021-12-09). "Dr. Jos Boys named as one of BBC 100 Women 2021". The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  27. ↑ "The DisOrdinary Architecture Project". The DisOrdinary Architecture Project. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  28. ↑ "The Supporting Act Foundation | Say hello to the 2023 grantees". www.thesupportingact.org. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  29. 1 2 3 "In conversation with ... Jos Boys". Parlour. 2020-06-11. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  30. ↑ Boys, Jos (2014-11-13). Building Better Universities. doi:10.4324/9780203798881. ISBN   9780203798881.
  31. ↑ Boys, Jos. "Grown Men's Games: A Critique of the Lloyds Building". Architects' Journal. 22 October 1986.
  32. ↑ Bergland, Eeva. "Building a Real Alternative: Women's Design Service" (PDF). Field Journal. 2 (1). ISSN   1755-0068. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-06-18. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  33. ↑ Cutting Edge (1999). Desire by design : body, territories and new technologies. I.B. Tauris. ISBN   1-86064-280-2. OCLC   1053016006.
  34. ↑ "Taking Place". takingplace.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  35. ↑ Hoskyns, Teresa; Stratford, Helen (2017-09-02). "Was (is) taking place a Nomadic Practice?". Architecture and Culture. 5 (3): 407–421. doi:10.1080/20507828.2017.1379310. ISSN   2050-7828. S2CID   149220096.
  36. ↑ Hoskyns, Teresa; Lloyd Thomas, Katie. "PLACE 8: INTERSTITIAL BREAKFAST: Making Space for Questions about Architecture and Feminism". Field: volume 7, issue 1 (November 2017), pp.117-127. with taking place (Jos Boys, Julia Dwyer, Helen Stratford).[ permanent dead link ]
  37. ↑ Thomas, Katie Lloyd (2009). "the other side of waiting". Feminist Review. 93 (1): 122–127. doi:10.1057/fr.2009.35. ISSN   0141-7789. S2CID   143544102.
  38. ↑ "Altering Practices: Feminist Politics and Poetics of Space. Petrescu, Doina (Ed.) (2007), London and New York: Routledge". Cities. 24 (5): 393. 2007. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2007.05.003. ISSN   0264-2751.
  39. ↑ Stratford H, Lloyd Thomas K, Hoskyns T (2002). "Taking Place". Scroope, Cambridge Architecture Journal. 14.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  40. ↑ "How We Live Now: Reimagining Spaces with Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative | Barbican". www.barbican.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  41. ↑ "About". MatrixOpen. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  42. ↑ "Found Cities, Lost Objects | The Arts Council Collection". artscouncilcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  43. ↑ "Tensta konsthall | Chronos: health, access and intimacy". tenstakonsthall.se. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  44. ↑ Wright, Tim Powell (2021-04-20). "Jos Boys". Melbourne School of Design. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  45. ↑ "Matrix". Oslo Architecture Triennale (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  46. ↑ "Exhibition: How We Live Now | Institute for Social Science | Newcastle University". www.ncl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  47. ↑ "Many More Parts than M! (2023-4)". The DisOrdinary Architecture Project. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  48. ↑ "Many More Parts than M! publication launch at 66 Portland Place". www.architecture.com. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  49. ↑ Steward, Jade (2023-06-07). "'Seats at the Table' has launched in Postman's Park for LFA". London Festival of Architecture. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  50. ↑ "Theaterformen Braunschweig (2022)". The DisOrdinary Architecture Project. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  51. ↑ UCL (2020-03-09). "Inclusive Practices". The Bartlett Real Estate Institute. Retrieved 2020-06-22.[ permanent dead link ]
  52. ↑ Hall, Rachel (2019-09-02). "Can blind people make great architects?". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  53. ↑ Copsey, Tim (2018-10-24), ARCHITECTURE BEYOND SIGHT 2018 , retrieved 2020-06-22
  54. ↑ Andersen, Anna Ulrikke. "Architecture Beyond Sight". Vimeo. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  55. ↑ "Architecture Beyond Sight". Disability Arts Online. 2019-08-06. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  56. ↑ "Dis-ordinary architecture: A visionary course | Outside In". outsidein.org.uk. 6 August 2019. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  57. ↑ "DISORDINARY ARCHITECTURE PROJECT on Vimeo". vimeo.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  58. ↑ Boys, Jos. "Making Discursive Spaces: a collaboration between disabled and deaf artists and interior architecture students".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  59. ↑ "Case study: VocalEyes audio-described architecture tours – VocalEyes". Archived from the original on 2020-06-23. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
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