We are going through times of great change and we are all aware of that. The role of women in the field of architecture is becoming more and more relevant and, unlike other times, such as in the 20th century, the female figure is no longer hidden behind the male figure, as happened to Anne Tyng with Louis Kahn or Lilly Reich with Mies van der Rohe, just to mention a few examples.
What are the stories of the first Ibero-American women architects? This is the main question we seek to answer in celebration of ArchDaily's theme: Women in Architecture.
Seeking to put their motivations, inspirations, and trajectories on the table, we carried out a research project to make visible and highlight some names that have not had their deserved recognition. Meet Doris Clark Núñez, Guadalupe Ibarra, Matilde Ucelay Maórtua, Filandia Pizzul, Dora Riedel, Luz Amorocho, María Luisa Dehesa, Arinda da Cruz Sobral, and Julia Guarino, below.
Designing-Women’s Lives calls for a place-making revolution based on women’s culturally nurtured “feeling” sensibility. Women too often have had to repress that sensibility in order to become designers. Now, rather than struggle to fit in, women can break new ground by using Design Psychology as the foundation for creating emotionally satisfying places. To encourage such a heart/mind shift, the author discusses how she took architecture Gold Medalist Denise Scott Brown and interior design legend Margo Grant Walsh through a series of Design Psychology exercises.
Teen girls are neither children nor adults, meaning they have specific needs and behaviours different from both these groups. Unfortunately, like many marginalized groups, these needs and behaviours have not been met or encouraged through our built environment as it has for others. For example, playgrounds are built for children to let off steam and sports courts that foster competition are targeted at men and teen boys.
Accordingly, not building public spaces with the needs of teen girls in mind allows other groups of people, predominantly men who already take up 80% of public spaces, to continue to dominate them. Making teen girls feel ten times less secure in public spaces. Not only does this absence affect their social, physical, and mental development, but it also complicates how they see where they belong in public spaces.
25 practices, sole practitioners, and startups from 5 continents and 18 countries have been chosen as part of the 2023 New Practices, the latest edition of the global annual survey by ArchDaily. Ongoing since 2020, the review detects and showcases those who are taking architecture in its new direction under unstable times and demanding challenges.
ArchDaily's New Practices has invited not only designers to apply but those practicing within the broadest definition of architecture and its exercise to share their innovative, fresh, and forward-thinking mission with us. As a result, the 2023 edition features designers, landscape architects, researchers, curators, activists, writers, and three ground-breaking startups—the modular construction U-Build, Urban Beta with their Beta Port building system, and the "Google Doc of Space Design" Rayon—thus joining previously highlighted firms: AEC-industry-oriented management software Monograph, energy transition startup Baupal, online design platform and marketplace CANOA, and 3D-printed housing company ICON.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has named Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, as the recipient of the 2023 AIA Gold Medal, the institution’s highest annual honor. The award recognizes and applauds Carol Ross Barney’s focus on design excellence, social responsibility, and generosity. Through her transformative projects, she has endeavored to make the world a better place and, according to the jury, made “an indelible mark on the profession.”
Equal Saree is an architecture studio based in Barcelona, led by three young architects: Helena Cardona Tamayo, Julia Goula Mejón, and Dafne Saldaña Blasco. All three studied at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB), Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, where they met while taking the subject "Architecture and Politics", taught by Zaida Muxí and Josep María Montaner. The studio is composed of 15 other women architects, in addition to the founding partners.
The inaugural MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission opened on the 6th of October, 2022, unveiling a large-scale installation by Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, who explores the concept of clothing as a symbol of protection and the associated practices of domestic labor, gender, and community. The MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission is an annual series that invites an international female designer or architect to create a significant new space for the NGV Collection. As the first and only initiative of its kind in Australia, the Commission will create a platform for the presentation of world-premiere topical works that amplify the contribution of women designers and architects.
CIERTO ESTUDIO was founded by six young architects in 2014. Since then, the team has not stopped growing and thus consolidating its professional practice in Barcelona. These six women architects are: Marta Benedicto, Ivet Gasol, Carlota de Gispert, Anna Llonch, Lucia Millet, and Clara Vidal.
The studio was born from plurality, therefore its thinking is inevitably diverse and this is reflected in its collaborative work methodology, always looking for the maximum architectural claim and its own character.
Rozana Montiel has been awarded the 2022 International Prize for Women Architects, organized by ARVHA (Association for Research on Cities and housing) with the support of the Ile de France Region, the French Higher Council of Architects Associations (CNOA), the Pavillon de l'Arsenal and the City of Paris.
To commemorate the centenary of Elissa Aalto (1922-2022), the Alvar Aalto Foundation brought into tour an exhibition showcasing the life's work of this talented and influential Finnish architect and designer. From September to November 23, 2022, the exhibition sheds light on her public and private role in the everyday life of Alvar Aalto's architect's office alongside her famous architect husband. The tour will take place in the Cities of Rovaniemi, Alajärvi, and Tammisaari, home to many buildings designed by the legendary Finnish architect couple.
From ending up by accident in architectural studies, to eventually falling in love with the complexity of the field and the multitude of its layers, Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge was amazed by the dual nature of architecture; its intellectual aspect, and physical outcome. Founder of Meyer-Grohbrügge in Berlin, the architect, and her studio seek to spatialize content, create relationships, and find solutions for living together.
With Toshiko Mori and Gabriela Carrillo, Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge is part of a new documentary titled "Women in Architecture", premiering on November 3rd. The film by Sky-Frame, in collaboration with ArchDaily, and directed by Boris Noir is a catalyst for debate on one of the most pressing topics in architecture.
The 2022 Biennale of FRAC in the Centre-Val De Loire Region, France, is exhibiting the work of 55 women for its third edition entitled Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy. The fair showcases pieces from the Center Pompidou and the Cité de l'architecture et du Patrimoine collection and brings special guests such as architect Anna Heringer and Journalist and Director Rokhaya Diallo. From September 2022 to January 1st, 2023, female artists, architects, and politicians will gather to discuss and create a new definition of inclusive and plural democracy in the city, architecture, design, and art.
Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo has built an exemplary career and is passionate about the city, territory, and diversity. Her widely awarded works, first in partnership with Mauricio Rocha and now running her own studio, have become the reference image when discussing contemporary architecture in Mexico. Her projects translate the world's needs, developing constant work to recognize the values of the territory in order to provide spaces that dignify its inhabitants. Situated between praxis, theory, and research, her interests are focused on the everyday, leading a flexible and dynamic practice that allows her to maintain a balance between working and living.
Alongside Toshiko Mori and Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, Gabriela Carrillo is part of the new documentary "Women in Architecture" to be released on the 3rd of November 2022. The film promoted by Sky-Frame, in exclusive collaboration with ArchDaily and under the direction of Boris Noir, is an impulse for inspiration, debate, and reflection around one of the most pressing issues in architecture.
To make our world a better place, everyone should have an idea of how architecture works and what it can have an impact on.
Thinking on how to share empowering stories about women who are making an impact on the built environment through architecture, we partnered with filmmaker Boris Noir who developed the concept for the documentary “Women in Architecture”. The project has been initiated by Sky-Frame to shed more light on the role of women in architecture, by increasing their visibility and empowering them to realize their full potential.
We reached out to Toshiko Mori, Gabriela Carrillo, and Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, three architects in three different countries, in different stages of their careers, but with a lot in common: recognized practitioners, with a passion for education, working with communities, and a sensibility towards the needs of society and the built environment.
The protagonists shared with us a variety of fundamental topics, such as their perspectives on being a woman in an industry led by men, how to balance work and private life, and the general challenges women experience in the profession. Their enthusiasm provides a space for reflection and inspiration.
Architecture is human. So when I entered Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in 1973 and the entire faculty were as white and male as I was, it made no sense to me but reflected the end times of the full-on male dominance in my chosen profession. In that world, a few professors would often comment on how female students looked at juries, and some sexually victimized some students (none of whom were male).
The “Women in Architecture “exhibition by the Danish Architecture Center aims to open the conversation about women in architecture and showcase their often overlooked, yet substantial contributions to the field. The historical part of the exhibition celebrates untold stories and forgotten accomplishments of women in Denmark from the 1920s to the 1970s. The exhibition also gives the floor to contemporary architects, asking them to share their experiences as architects in Denmark today. To further explore this position, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Siv Helene Stangeland from Helen & Hard , and Ensamble Studio explore the theme of the event inspired by Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essay, “A Room of One’s Own”, in which she asserts that women must be financially independent if they are to be able to create works of significance. They must have a room of their own, in both a physical and metaphorical sense.
With the construction sector getting back into full swing and major upcoming projects being announced, a larger workforce is getting ready to take on these colossal works. Accordingly, on-site presence and inspections are critical and essential to creating good architecture and constitute significant learning instances for architects or engineers looking to build expertise. But despite all these new endeavors that promise new technologies, a more sustainable future, and better ways of living, one old issue prevails the presence of gender discrimination on the construction site.
