Emancipatory narratives

Iris Dullin-Grund and Myra Warhaftig's life stories are worth being told. They both entail hopeful and empowering narratives that show how to put a foot in the door and use the few privileges of their position to benefit a larger multitude. Even if they lived in different government regimes, their political orientations shared some ground. Myra Warhaftig was influenced by Marxism (Krüger 2021) and Iris Dullin-Grund was a convinced socialist, as her autobiography displays (Dullin-Grund 2004). Myra Warhaftig's work is clearly inscribed in secondwave feminist tendencies. Through the design of the dwelling, she sought to give women more freedom in their homes. In a different context, Iris Dullin-Grund has not declared herself a feminist but cared for the optimisation of floorplans Abb. 4: Myra Warhaftig 1953 als Studentin am Technion Haifa. Foto: privatfor housekeepers within the limitations of socialist planning (Droste 2014) and also used her position to employ young women graduate in her work teams (Engler 2018). Seen from an intersectional feminist perspective, despite their marginalised position, as women architects, as caregivers, as a Jew for Myra Wahrhaftig, as coming from the working-class for Iris Dullin-Grund, they both managed to navigate and carve themselves a space in a male-dominated world which can inspire present and future generations of women architect.

Abb. 5: Myra Warhaftig 1957 in Paris. Foto: privat Abb. 6: Myra Warhaftig mit ihren Töchtern Orly und Tomari, Berlin 1972. Foto: privat

Myra Warhaftig – Architektin und Bauforscherin 25

Fig. 4 - Myra Warhaftig with her daughters Orly and Tomari, Berlin, 1972 (left top) Fig. 5 - Orly and Tomari's mother breaks out of the constraints of the conventional flat, drawing by Orly Warhaftig, 1982 (left bottom) Fig. 6 - Iris Dullin-Grund on the cover of the magazin Frau von heute (woman of today), 1961 (right)