ADELE
PATRICK

1989- 1999

For over a decade, until 1999, I was involved in two women’s housing projects; first, Four Walls, a women’s housing development in Glasgow’s West End and from 1993, Take Root, a pioneering women’s timber frame, self build housing project. Despite developing skills in self-building honed at the Centre for Alternative Technology and Monimail Permaculture Association, being supported by Segal Method architect Mary Kelly and gaining funding and land from Molendinar Housing Association the group’s aims to self build were ultimately dashed by misogynistic councillors and excoriating tabloid press coverage that proclaimed “loony lesbians plan man-free zone”.

Artist Winnie Herbstein references Take Root explicitly in her practice this is shown in her film Minutes (2019). In this work Take Root’s group meeting minutes were developed by Winnie into scenarios and restaged by members of Slaghammers, a feminist welding group who were based in Glasgow Autonomous Space. The video was shown at the CCA Glasgow on the 20th October 2019 and as part of the exhibition Brace, a solo show at Jupiter Woods, London.

A film was made about Take Root by Magda Ang, Karen Dickson and Helen Archer with the Video Information Project (1998). It can be accessed via Winnie Herstein’s vimeo account here. In the film I am interviewed alongside Sue John, another Take Root member, and the group are shown training to build at Monimail with Mary Kelly.

The Take Root archive can be accessed at Glasgow Women’s Library.

“We are a diverse group of women who decided to do something about our dire housing conditions. We're not creating a refuge but designing our own ideal homes. Most of us have been homeless at some point and suffered harassment from landlords. Building our own homes is a way of taking control of our housing needs."

Idealistic Homes, Anita Chaudhuri, 2 Aug 1999, Guardian