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You’re waiting for a book about women in architecture, and then three appear! My own book, Thrive: A Field Guide to Women in Architecture, has been followed by 100 Women: Architects in Practice, and later this year, Bloomsbury Women in Architecture encyclopedia”. What’s great is that all of these books are international in scope, finally moving away from Eurocentric depictions of women architects. The global median proportion of women in the construction industry is about 33%, with the lowest being 10% and the highest being 53%. The discussion of why and how women contribute to the design of the built environment remains a relevant topic, especially as the profession is regulated in most countries.
100 Women is written by academics, designers and writers: Harriet Harriss, Naomi House, Monika Parrinder and Tom Ravenscroft. Canadian-British architect Alison Brooks says in her foreword, “In this book you will find a global survey of 100 visionary, creative, intelligent, enterprising and accomplished architects. ” and went on to say that such “emotional vocabulary is rarely used in describing women in professional disciplines such as architecture.”
This book covers five geographical regions: Africa, America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, and about 80 countries and regions. The better-known Danish architect Dorte Mandrup wrote in 2017 that she wanted to be recognized as an architect rather than a female architect (Romanian-Belgian architect Vana Bo Oana Bogdan and Francine Houben from the Netherlands also agree), and many others whose names or works may not be familiar to Westerners, such as the Korean Sook Hee Chum, whose building “Dialogue in the Dark” invites visitors to experience daily activities in total darkness, empathizing with people with vision problems; Habibeh Madjabedi, who crafted the “40 Section House” in Tehran, and Daliana Surywanta In Indonesia, an unconventional “micro library” was designed.
The author calls this book a “coffee table Trojan horse.” This could be a coffee table book in the sense that the definition of the practice encompasses anything from pure radicalism to traditional architecture, the sparseness of technical drawings and the selection of featured women based on recommendations rather than specific criteria. However, I believe it is more than just a coffee table book.
Many of the projects were paper projects or incomplete, making one wonder what difficulties these architects faced
Difficulties of working in certain countries include lack of social support, death threats and aggression – such as this photo of a shopping mall designed by Ukrainian Svitlana Zdorenko that was bombed, Or designed by Marwa Al Sabouni, who continues to write, advocate and her designs are inspired by the ruins of her hometown of Hom in Syria. The big question is can these projects be designed by men? Some would say yes. But considering the sexism that exists in countries around the world, the fact that these women somehow managed to rise above their circumstances and design anything a man might have is noteworthy.
Furthermore, most women said their guiding principles came from participation, co-design, and collaboration rather than from a selfish desire to imprint their ideas on customers, stakeholders, and users. Most of these women also engage in teaching alongside their daily activities.
Works range from post-2000 architecture to models, paper and unfinished projects, including cabins of all sizes, interiors, installations, books, furniture, garden nurseries, sculptures and carnival costumes. This shows that architectural expression can be diverse, especially for female architects. As the French architect (and founder of the architecture school) Odile Decq said, “My work is a complete universe in which architecture, design, art and urbanism come together to challenge and respond to each other”.
Strongly reflects women’s initiative, spirit and enterprising spirit
This book raised a lot of questions for me. “Trojan Horse” also reveals something less obvious. For example, people wanted to know about female architects from 115 countries that were not recommended, and those surveyed did not know which female architects were recommended. I wondered “Are there women architects in these places?” Many of the projects were paper projects or incomplete, making one wonder what kind of difficulties these architects faced.
The desire to avoid colonial bias by showing women from various geographical regions of the world is hampered to some extent by the fact that many women working in non-Western countries were educated in the West or received European education in their home countries. Psychological education – this is reflected in their work. As the author notes at the time of the book’s launch, almost all women speak English. Here I commend the work of Toshin Oshinowo (Nigeria) and Yasmeen Lari (Pakistan), both of whom were educated in the West but showcase the best of low-energy locally inspired architecture in their work.
For now, the Eurocentricity of this work is unavoidable. However, exceptions are made for non-Western women working in the West, such as Sumayya Vally from South Africa, Lina Gotmeh from Lebanon but working in Paris, and Jeannette Kuo from Indonesia working in Switzerland, but there is slowly an effort to balance this out.
Perhaps we can learn from the work of these women – could Larry’s expertise in flood-resistant buildings, for example, be useful one day in the UK? In fact, male architects always have more freedom to design in different places. Looking ahead, with the climate emergency, it will be particularly important to consider net-zero or retrofit buildings and use local materials, given how common and desirable the energy-intensive “International Style” has become.
That said, what’s strongest is women’s agency, spirit and gumption – imagine these 100 women in a room! This book is really a great start as it places these 100 women architects into everyday conversation and memory – I hope it becomes a talking point, a way that the authors can connect with each other and even with the architecture community network with different women or women in architecture. Construction groups around the world.
The world of architecture is not very well known in popular conversation. In addition to higher education institutions, this book could be a great addition to any school library, encouraging girls to become architects one day. This kind of inspiration, collaborative action and sharing of learning is exactly what is needed today. Women are especially good at this!
> Also read: Thrive: A Field Guide for Women in Construction
> Read also: To design a better world, we must have more female architects
> Also read: Let’s celebrate the South Asian pioneers who blazed a trail for women in architecture
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