The Project
The idea did not come from a planning office or a top-down policy. It came from research, a walk, and a dream.
How it started
Founder Husseim Stuck studied Environmental and Resource Management at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and Human Geography at Humboldt University of Berlin. For his master’s thesis on environmental justice and green infrastructure in Berlin, he interviewed women across the city.
A pattern emerged: many described green space as a source of peace and joy during the day, and a place of fear at night. As a cisgender man he had never felt that threat walking through a park after dark. Looking for research on these experiences, he found surprisingly little — women, queer people and other marginalised groups were often flattened into generic “users”.
Then came a dream of walking through a place that did not exist yet: a Feminist Park, rooted in care, safety, joy, justice and imagination. He woke up and started building.
What began as one person’s vision is now a growing circle of collaborators — architects, urban planners, GIS specialists and researchers — in Berlin and Perth.
What guides us
- Lived experience is expertise. People who have felt unwelcome in parks help shape what comes next.
- Access is not an add-on. Paths, toilets, seating, lighting and information work for many bodies, ages and abilities.
- Safety through care, not only control. We ask openly what surveillance does, and for whom.
- Nature and people together. Ecological care and the climate crisis are part of the design question.
- Many feminisms. Intersectional feminism and ecofeminism are our starting points, and we want to hear what they leave out.
The research behind it
A 2022 systematic review found indications that women may benefit from urban green space while being less likely to use it in some settings. The authors also note that few studies compare mental-health benefits for women and men, and that studies use sex and gender terms inconsistently. These findings motivate our work; they are not universal claims about every park or every woman.
Fernández Núñez, M.-B. et al. (2022). Gender and sex differences in urban greenness’ mental health benefits: A systematic review. Health & Place, 76, 102864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102864
A note on positionality
People often ask why a cis man founded a feminist project. Husseim’s answer is that feminism concerns everyone. As a racialised migrant he has experienced how spaces and systems treat people who diverge from the norm, and he names the limits of his own perspective: he will never know in his own body what it is like to move through space as someone read as a woman. He does not speak for others; the project is built so that others speak for themselves.
Words we use
- FINTA
- In this project, FINTA refers to women, intersex, non-binary, trans, and agender people who experience discrimination under patriarchy. Usage varies; this is the project’s working definition.
- BIPoC
- Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
- LGBTQIA+
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual/aromantic and more.