Home Truths: Women and the Design of Houses. Matrix (1984?)

Home Truths

An exhibition was made by Matrix, a group of feminist designers, trained as architects, now working in design, building and teaching. “When we started this exhibition we wanted to show how houses are designed as ‘A Woman’s Place’ – the way our homes are built, which rooms are where, how big they are; it all seems so obvious, so natural as to go unquestioned. In the design of our homes, certain social values are made to appear universal and obvious. The first part of the exhibition tries to uncover the myths and realities of housework as ‘no work’ and of the ideal home which can become a prison. The second part of the exhibition looks at a few alternatives.

14 laminated panels (30″ x 20″)  

Matrix was formed in 1980  and had grown from the New Architecture Movement, a radical architects and builders group with a magazine called ‘Slate’

They had already formed the design group, about which there was an exhibition at the Barbican in 2020, called How we live Now: Reimagining spaces with Matrix feminist Design Co-operative  

A group of them made Home Truths in 1981. The group is listed on the first panel as “Frances Bradshaw, Jos Boys, and Susan Francis, with special thanks to Annie Grove-White, Anne Thorne, Barbara Darling, Christina Mackie, Gwyn Kirk, Jane Bradshaw, Janis Goodman, Liz Millen, Marion Roberts and the Arts Council of Great Britain.” It was shown at a Big Flame summer school in 1982. Another group were working on a book, Making Space – Women and the Manmade Environment published by Pluto in 1984, which was republished last year (2023) by Verso.