Who We Are at Gendered City

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We approach design through a feminist lens that recognizes how urban environments impact people differently based on gender. Gender-sensitive design means acknowledging these differences and actively working to make spaces safer, more inclusive, and responsive to the diverse needs of women, girls, and gender-diverse people. From lighting and public transport to toilets, signage, and seating, we advocate for everyday urban infrastructure that supports care, accessibility, and dignity. At The Gendered City, we challenge the default, question whose bodies are centered in design, and work toward cities that reflect and respect everyone who moves through them.

At The Gendered City, we’re building a global, collaborative network of fem.des experts planners, architects, designers, researchers, artists, and urban thinkers committed to reimagining cities through a feminist lens. This community is not defined by geography or discipline, but by a shared commitment to equity, care, and spatial justice. Depending on the project, collaborators contribute from their own contexts, offering grounded, place-based insights and expertise. We shape cities that center women—by designing, challenging, and transforming space.

At The Gendered City, we center gender as a critical lens in every layer of urban planning, design, and policy-making. For us, gender mainstreaming means challenging the default interrogating who cities are built for, and who they systematically exclude.

We confront structural inequalities by combining intersectional research, participatory methodologies, and co-designed strategies that surface the everyday realities of women, girls. Our approach redefines the foundation of policy and planning to ensure cities are shaped by the needs and voices of all their inhabitants, not just the historically privileged.

We imagine and build femtopias, feminist urban futures grounded in care, equity, and collective joy. These are not utopias in the abstract, but real, tangible possibilities for rethinking how cities can work better for everyone. Through co-creation, speculative design, and experimental interventions, we develop alternative visions of the city where safety, accessibility, and participation are non-negotiable. Femtopias are built from lived experiences, rooted in local contexts, and shaped by those often excluded from traditional planning processes. They're radical blueprints for urban life that prioritize people over profit, community over control.

Our Knowledge Hub is a growing archive and living platform for feminist urban research, design strategies, tools, and stories. It’s where theory meets practice, and where global insights intersect with local know-how. From academic resources to grassroots wisdom, the hub supports collaborative learning, skill-sharing, and the exchange of gender-sensitive approaches to city-making. We aim to create a space for critical inquiry, radical imagination, and practical action fueling a more inclusive and equitable urban future.

The Academy is our space for collective learning, unlearning, and reimagining. Through workshops, courses, labs, and public programs, we foster critical feminist thinking and equip individuals and communities with the tools to challenge dominant urban paradigms. We believe learning is political and transformative our academy nurtures a culture of curiosity, care, and co-creation. Whether you're a city-maker, student, policymaker, or activist, this is a space to grow skills, share knowledge, and experiment with new ways of shaping cities through a gendered lens.

We use mapping  FEM.URBAN.ATLAS as a feminist tool to make visible what often goes unseen. From safety to accessibility, care networks to urban exclusions, we chart the everyday geographies of gendered life in the city. Through participatory methods, data collection, storytelling, and spatial analysis, we expose the layered inequalities embedded in urban design and policy. These maps are not just visuals they are acts of resistance, awareness, and transformation, reclaiming space and agency for those who are too often left out of the official narrative.

FEM.GREEN is a collaborative initiative that seeks to drive a feminist and green urban transition. By co-creating practical tools and methodologies, the project aims to support a fair, gender-inclusive green transformation in cities. The FEM.GREEN project focuses on co-creating practical tools and methodologies that support a fair, gender-inclusive green transition. It brings together experts and communities to explore strategies that integrate feminist principles into urban design, addressing issues such as inclusive public spaces, green infrastructure, and sustainable mobility. Through this collaborative approach, FEM.GREEN envisions cities that are equitable, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of all inhabitants.

We believe cities should be designed by, with, and for everyone. Our ethos is rooted in care, collaboration, and resistance. We center feminist values equity, inclusion, empathy, and justice in every step of our work. We challenge power structures, reimagine norms, and create space for multiple voices, especially those silenced by dominant systems. We move between grassroots action and systemic change, combining lived experience with critical knowledge. Our ways are not fixed they evolve with the people, places, and struggles we walk alongside. Always curious, always listening, always building toward a more just and joyful urban future.