Tender Infrastructures: Designing with Care, or Contributions to ‘Matters of Care’ in Architecture

Abstract

Despite the fact that architecture has always been linked to issues such as hygiene, shelter, well-being and physical protection, the concept of care has only been incorporated into the concerns of architecture in recent years. Tender Infrastructures is a peda­gogical experiment carried out at the University of Alicante, which takes as a frame of reference the work of some authors from the studies of science, technology and society (STS), feminist studies, posthumanism, and especially the ideas of María Puig de la Bellacasa in what she calls ‘Matters of care’. Appropriating this frame, this experiment sets out to show that care is an activity directly associated with design and the socio-material networks in which architecture is directly involved.

Keywords

• Architecture Design
• Matters of Care
• STS
• Architecture Design Pedagogy