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Women Architects: The Latest Architecture and News

COMA 2020: Ibero-American Conference on Architecture Media

Comunicar Arquitectura (COMA) is an annual event that brings together specialists from Latin America and Spain in order to address essential questions for those who communicate architecture while mapping the media architecture landscape in the region.

Lydia Kallipoliti and Areti Markopoulou Appointed Head Curators of Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022

The Estonian Centre for Architecture has announced “Edible. Or, the Architecture of Metabolism” as the topic for the next Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022 (TAB 2022), while the selected head curators are architects Lydia Kallipoliti and Areti Markopoulou in collaboration with co-curator Ivan Sergejev.

In conversation with Anastasia Elrouss: Architect, Activist, and Founder of Warch(ée) NGO

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I’ve known since I was a child that change would never happen on its own. My dream was to make a positive change as a woman architect and urban planner.” Architect, Activist, and Founder of Warch(ée) NGO, Anastasia Elrouss has been involved in architecture and advocating for women in the field, for nearly 15 years. Through her own practice, she is always seeking to create interventions that are constantly adapting to the users and the environment, “putting the human layer at the center of the architectural experience”. Through her platform, she is encouraging an ongoing conversation about gender equality and the role of women in the workplace and the world.

Archdaily’s Hana Abdel, project curator and Christele Harrouk, senior editor, had the chance to sit with Anastasia to discuss her journey, her creative process, her deeply-rooted involvement with women in the field and the inception of both her NGO and architectural practice.

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NCARB Releases 2020 Numbers Featuring First Results on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

The ninth edition of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards’ (NCARB) annual report has been released, in the midst of new challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting major information about the architecture profession in 2019. Focusing on different parameters, such as licensing, education, experience, and demographics, the study explores the evolution and transformation of the field, encompassing also findings on equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Anne Fougeron on Creating Good Urban Spaces and Being a Woman Architect

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The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions. A wide array of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Anne Fougeron, award-winning architect and founder of Fougeron Architecture, to discuss her work, city densities, creating good urban spaces with architecture, women, and equality in architecture, design processes, partnering with other offices and more! This episode is part of a series produced with the support of the SF Urban Program, Architecture Department, Cal Poly. Enjoy!

Empowering African American Female Architects and Students: In Conversation with Tiffany Brown, Founder of 400 Forward

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A pioneer for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the profession of architecture, Detroit native Tiffany Brown is the founder of 400 Forward, an initiative that seeks, inspires, and mentors the next generation of women designers. Named in light of the licensing of the 400th African American woman architect in 2017, the program aims to familiarize young girls with architecture, giving them tools to address social injustice issues.

Pushing forward the presence of African American women in the profession of architecture -currently standing at less than 0.3% in the U.S- 400 Forward also provides scholarships and tuitions for study material and licensing exams for African American women in architecture. In order to learn more about the initiative, ArchDaily had the chance to talk with founder Tiffany Brown about the program, diversity in the field, and empowering female architects and students.

Racism and Cities with Mabel O. Wilson, Akira Drake Rodriguez, and Bryan Lee

The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions. A wide array of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Mabel O. Wilson, Bryan Lee, and Akira Drake Rodriguez to discuss racism and cities, how the built environment can be an instigator of racism, protests, the tearing down confederate monuments, housing, blackness and whiteness, the key changes needed for a more equitable society, and more. Enjoy!

Kristin Feireiss on the 40 Years of Aedes, Women Empowerment and the Future of Architecture

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During the peak of Postmodernism, and the uprising of notions such as urban renewal and public participation, Aedes Architecture Forum, the first private architecture gallery in the world, opened in 1980 in Berlin. Founded by Journalist Kristin Feireiss and Helga Retzer, both neither architects nor regularly engaged with architecture at that time, Aedes aspired to encourage an international dialogue around the subjects of urban environment, space, and society.

Shortly after its inception, the center became an integral part of the contemporary international architectural scene, carrying out debates, seeking fresh ideas, showcasing the avant-garde, and highlighting young talents. Providing architects with a compelling space to present their architectural and urban ideas, Aedes hosted exhibitions for Zaha Hadid, Venturi Scott Brown, Cedric Price, John Hejduk, OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), Peter and Alison Smithson, and Bernard Tschumi to name a few.

Alison and Peter Smithson: The Duo that Led British Brutalism

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Wife and husband pair Alison (22 June 1928 – 16 August 1993) and Peter Smithson (18 September 1923 – 3 March 2003) formed a partnership that led British Brutalism through the latter half of the twentieth century. Beginning with a vocabulary of stripped-down modernism, the pair were among the first to question and challenge modernist approaches to design and urban planning. Instead, they helped evolve the style into what became Brutalism, becoming proponents of the "streets in the sky" approach to housing.

Mies van der Rohe Foundation Launches Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture

The Mies van der Rohe Foundation has launched the second edition of the Lilly Reich Grant for equality in architecture. Marking the 135th anniversary of the birth of the German designer, the grant incorporates specific support for senior high school students to enhance curricular research projects. The grant aims to deepen the knowledge and dissemination of Reich and her impact in the history of modern architecture.

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"Warchée" Demolishes Gender Inequality in the Construction Field

Warchée is an organization that has the purpose of integrating women into the construction field. Born from the observation that in a rapidly urbanizing world, particularly in the Middle East, women are still excluded from certain professions, the NGO, founded by Anastasia Elrouss, aims to create an all-inclusive and evolving world.

Architecture in the Periphery: Teaching Women to Build Houses in Brazil

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The spirit of the women who participate in the movements fighting for housing in Brazil is as hard as lime and wood. As a majority in land occupations, they vigorously coordinate organizational and political practices of settlement and popular housing construction. It is no wonder that many of the occupations of the MST (Landless Rural Workers' Movement) or the MTST (Homeless Workers' Movement) carry the names of women such as Dandara, a quilombo leader from the colonial period.

Rebelarchitette Releases a New Public Women Architects World Map

Rebelarchitette has created a new tool that aims to detox architecture from inequalities, an interactive public world map showcasing 732 outstanding women architects from all over the world.

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Stephanie Ribeiro on how "Architecture Must Recognize the Debate Around Race and Gender"

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My decision to study architecture was a naive one, made after having taken several vocational tests I found on Google. When I found out it was one of the toughest courses in Brazilian public universities, I thought about giving up. But I was already hooked by the history of architecture and its social role.

However, nothing is perfect. Architecture and Urban Planning is one of the most elite courses in the most renowned Brazilian universities, something that is reflected outside of the classroom as well. The architects went on to serve the rich, casting aside the needs of the cities and the poor.

Architects, not Architecture: Sadie Morgan from dRMM

Architects, not Architecture decided to open their archive to help us cope with the current situation of not being able to go out as usual and create a source of inspiration and entertainment through sharing one of the unique talks from their previous 35 events, which have never been published before – including those of architects like Daniel Libeskind, Tatiana Bilbao, Peter Cook, Richard Rogers, Massimiliano Fuksas, Kim Herforth Nielsen, Ben van Berkel, Benedetta Tagliabue, Anupama Kundoo, Sadie Morgan, Dan Stubbergaard, Manuelle Gautrand and Kjetil Thorsen,

Every week, Archdaily will be sharing one of the Architects, not Architecture. talks which they are currently publishing online in the form of daily full-length video uploads as part of their event: Home Edition 2020 (www.architectsnotarchitecture.com).

MMW, an Online Platform for Architectural Visuals by Women

Mulher, Mujer, Woman, or simply MMW, is an online platform dedicated to architectural representations, whose objective is to spread the women's production within our professional field. Created by the Brazilian architects Carol Vasques and Débora Boniatti as a reaction to the still scarce diffusion of female references, the platform seeks to "highlight the importance and relevance of women in the past, present and future of the profession."

Artistic Intervention "Re-enactment" Highlights Lilly Reich’s Works in the Barcelona Pavilion

In time for Women’s Day, the artistic outcome of the first call of the Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture opened at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. Running till the 22nd March 2020, the exhibition entitled Re-enactment, carried out by Laura Martínez de Guereñu, aims to put the spotlight on Reich’s overlooked work.

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A Look Ahead: What’s Next for the Women in Design Movement?

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In honor of International Women’s Day celebrated on March 8, it’s important to reflect upon and acknowledge the progress that women across all design professions have made over the last several years. From more women being appointed to leadership roles in prominent academic institutions around the world, Jeanne Gang being named to Time 100’s Most Influential People in 2019, the all-female team of Counterspace being awarded the design of the Serpentine Pavilion in London, and the first female practice winning the prestigious Pritzker Prize only a few days ago, more women in architecture are gaining the recognition that they deserve in this traditionally male-dominated profession.