As part of the feminist demonstrations that took place last weekend in Mexico, a group of Mexican women architects organized to join the march held on Sunday, March 8, in various parts of the country. The march aimed to 'take back the city' to demand direct state action to reverse the wave of violence and historical bias against women in Mexico, where numbers have reached 10 femicides a day.
The protests spanned two days. For March 8, five firms led by Andrea Cesarman (C Cúbica), Verónica González Zavala (Vgz arquitectura), Erica Krayer (Uribe Krayer), Lorena Vieyra (Vieyra Arquitectos), and Saidee Springall (a|911) launched a call to women in the profession, which was joined by more than 500 women from offices such as: Gaeta Springall, Ambrosi Etchegaray, BAAQ, Dealer de plantas, Diametro, Esrawe, Estudio MMX, Frida Escobedo, Ignacio Urquiza Arquitectos, Iñaki Echeverría, JSa, Legorreta, Leticia Serrano, MAC Arquitectos, Mauricio Rocha, Nodo Taller, Oficio Taller, PRODUCTORA, Reurbano, Rhyzoma, Rozana Montiel, Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, Springall + MK, Taller G, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, VALLVIIC, VFO, ZDA, CCA, Gabriela Carrillo, Cristina Grappin, Revitaliza, Beatriz Peschard, Nomah, El Cielo, MOB, Arroyo Solís Agraz, and Akurat, among others. Companies such as Knoll, Piacere, and USG, as well as media outlets including Glocal, Architectural Digest, and ArchDaily, also joined the march, carrying signs designed by the collective with messages such as "Women designing a world without violence", "Women supporting women", and "Building equity."
Just before joining the march, the contingent stopped at the Memorial to the Victims of Violence by Gaeta Springall Arquitectos to write slogans related to the movement on the steel walls of the monument. In addition to the marches, various demonstrations took place across the country, such as the Architecture Encounter: Act of Protest led by architects Gabriela Carrillo, Rozana Montiel, Frida Escobedo, Tatiana Bilbao, Sol Camacho, Loreta Castro, and Cristina Verissimo, who gathered on March 6, 7, and 8 to present their stance against gender-based violence.
After taking to the streets, on Monday, March 9, the profession joined the national strike under the hashtag #elnueveningunasemueve to simulate what a world without women would be like. Women represent 51.4% of the population in Mexico, and their labor is essential to the workforce. Similarly, the aforementioned offices participated in supporting the 9M strike and shared photographs of how the strike was experienced in their offices.
Furthermore, the organizing firms mentioned above drafted a document explaining the movement's intentions and their stance on recent events. Below is the full text outlining the position of the Construyendo Equidad collective.
The goal of this contingent of designers is to take a stand from the perspective of architecture and design to demand a more equitable world without violence against women. Under the slogan "Women designing a world without violence" #construyendoequidad, the collective asserts that architecture and design must be agents of change to foster greater inclusion, equality, presence, visibility, recognition, and respect.
We are already more than 500 women who have joined to march together in this massive event in Mexico City. Groups of women in Monterrey and Guadalajara have also joined this call, representing more than 50 architecture, design, and other disciplinary firms. This highlights the urgent need for all women to have a safe and trusting space where we can unite our voices to be heard and tell our stories.
Within the profession, there is a deep weariness with the active and passive forms of exclusion and violence that women face from the discipline: in schools, offices, leadership positions, media, academia, and even in the way the female voice is systematically 'disappeared.'
There are active forms of discrimination and exclusion at home, on the streets, in public transit, and in the workplace that force us to reimagine and rethink these spaces from a gender perspective to foster new forms of inclusion, equity, and safety... modifying the physical environment into arenas that help reverse processes of violence and exclusion.
If we recognize the environment we live in through our own experiences and history, we can act with a different vision that allows us to respond with solutions that encourage alternative behaviors—occupying design spaces, taking leadership roles, and modifying labor relations to create new dynamics and a new social contract.
United in solidarity with the movement against violence against women
United in the face of this state of emergency in which we live
United for all women who have been abused
United to make our voices heard
United to create this space of trust and safety
United to build equity
United to design a world without violence
United because together we can design change
United for those who are no longer here, for those yet to come, but most importantly, for those of us who are here.
Today, inaction is not an option
This article was written by ArchDaily Team. The translation is powered by AI.
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