From Byzantine huts to egyptian playgrounds: the brilliance of female architects Art and design

IIf one thinks “twentieth-century Brazilian modernist genius,” one might base it on Oscar Niemeyer, but also see the Italian émigré Lina Bo Bardi, who developed Italian-style modernism with a Brazilian accent in her chosen homeland. Its Teatro Oficina, in São Paulo, was chosen by this newspaper as the best theater in the world.

Five hundred miles away is one of my favorite tenements, Alla Ronde; An eccentric 16-sided house in Exmouth, Devon. It was designed in 1796 by Jane and Mary Parmenter (two “spinster” cousins, in the words of the National Trust) and relative John Lauder. The cousins, who were not professionals, had drawn inspiration from their Grand Tour of Europe (an unusual undertaking for women at the time) and, in particular, from the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. Critic Lucinda Lambton described the ornate, Byzantine-themed cottage as embodying “a magical strangeness that one might only have dreamed of as a child.”

I thought of Bo Bardi and the Parmenters when I read the recent report by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) which found that “blatant displays of sexism” were driving women out of the profession, stalling their progress in it, or preventing them from entering it altogether. RIBA’s chief executive, Dr Valerie Vaughan Dick – the first female chief executive in the organization’s nearly two-hundred-year history – said the report, which documented sexual harassment (including stalking and harassment), unequal pay (a 16% gender gap), anti-social working hours, and pervasive power imbalances, makes “uncomfortable reading”.

It comes two decades after a 2003 review revealed the exodus of women from architecture. It is clear that the industry has not sufficiently renewed itself. More women are studying the subject at university, but only 31% of architects registered with the Architects Registration Board (2022) and less than a quarter of RIBA charter members are female. Increasingly, the issue of retention overshadows the issue of recruitment. In a 2017 Dezeen survey, only 10% of senior positions in the 100 largest architecture firms worldwide are held by women. The result is the unfortunate fact that the achievements of some of our best architects are made all the more impressive by their gender.

There’s Kazuyo Sejima and her confident but mercurial buildings that reflect the mood of their natural surroundings: aluminum sparkles in the bright sun and shimmers in the rain; The “reflective cloud” considered at the 2009 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (with Ryue Nishizawa) is seamlessly integrated into Hyde Park. Maryam Issoufou is a Niger-born architect who works with sustainable local materials and resources — compressed earth bricks, rubberwood, palm fronds — to produce beautiful libraries and residential complexes in her native country and elsewhere.

Liz Diller’s work is porous and community-focused – her greatest triumph, in my opinion, is New York’s hugely popular High Line, a two-kilometre elevated linear park along an abandoned freight bridge. Meanwhile, its expansive Los Angeles museum maintains its own museum across the street from Frank Gehry’s famous Walt Disney Concert Hall.

AArchitecture has long been considered one of the most misogynistic fields, whether it’s because of the stereotype of female athletes that boys or women are only suited to the soft furnishings. This is reflected in daily practice: on-site PPE that is too large, rare collections, and emails that begin with the “Gentleman” salutation. As one of the best architects of the last 30 years, the late Zaha Hadid once said: “I’m not part of those boys’ network… There are places where men can go and women can’t, like gentlemen’s clubs, or men asking each other to play golf.”

Of course, the buildings were built long ago by and to men. Le Corbusier’s famous residence, as impressive as it is in terms of classification, was designed according to his ideal figure on the anthropometric scale. He called this the ‘Modulor Man’ – somewhat inspired by da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man – except that Le Corbusier relied on a ‘six-foot-tall British policeman’ (although none were ever built in Britain). This imaginary computer dictates everything from handle heights to stair dimensions.

Not only were the functional buildings designed with men in mind, they outwardly adhered to inherently “masculine” qualities in form and character – solid steel, stark wood paneling, and the roughness of Béton Brut. The most obvious example is phallic skyscrapers. Certainly more common than the Hadid Football Stadium in Qatar, which was mocked for looking like a vulva (I wouldn’t agree, but honestly: it is. Then again, so is a stadium in the same country by Albert Speer Jr.).

Accordingly, dominant cultural images of architects are fundamentally hyper-masculine; Take Adrien Brody’s brooding character with rolled-up sleeves in the three-hour epic The Brutalist. The protagonist of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, Howard Roark, is an early archetype of the arrogant star engineer (or architect). Here’s an excerpt from Rourke’s directive: “These rocks, I think, are here for me: waiting for the drill and the dynamite and my voice; waiting to be split, torn, pounded, and born again; waiting for the shape my hand will give them.”

TThe assumption that concrete or clean, unadorned lines are “masculine” by default is, of course, reductive. Denis Lasdun is one of my favorite architects, and it’s not because I think of structural clarity as evidence of a “masculine” penchant for clarity. I’m afraid the (wonderful) work of Mies van der Rohe is not reminiscent of the specific images of Doryphorus. Likewise, although Oscar Niemeyer once said that his gorgeous, smooth curves were partly inspired by “the body of a beloved woman,” I imagine a flesh-and-blood woman of the same proportions might fall flat. Often called the “Queen of the Curve,” Hadid compared her designs to the female form, though she frequently cited the abstract art of Kazimir Malevich as an influence rather than Jessica Rabbit.

So does the gender of the architect matter, apart from the obvious failure of justice? Yes. The presence of more women in the profession means that buildings and urban environments increasingly reflect the lived experience of women, regardless of style. In the 1980s, the women of the London-based activist collective Matrix, tired of the agony of climbing stairs in prams or rushing through unlit tunnels, campaigned for a cityscape more in keeping with the way women lived.

This does not mean that childcare, shopping and housework should be women’s domains, but that although these inequalities and disparities exist, they must be acknowledged and cared for (this applies to the needs of the elderly, those with disabilities or those with neurological differences, too).

There is also research showing that companies with greater gender diversity on their boards tend to have higher profits. When it comes to architecture specifically – although it is important to avoid the gender stereotype that has led to hard, cold, crystalline surfaces that supposedly reflect the mood of men – roundtables from within the industry point out that key strengths for women include working more collaboratively and inclusively, and communicating in a more effective way with clients.

IIn the past, even when the contributions of female and non-binary architects were central to celebrated projects, their contributions were overlooked. Two of the UK’s most famous architects, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, founded the firm in 1963 with three women. One of them, as the only licensed architect at the time among the group, was the sole reason the firm was allowed to practice. But few know the names of Georgie Woolton, Sue Bromwell and Wendy Cheeseman (or Sally Appleby’s assistant).

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the world’s most famous architects—for good reason, the man has built many wonderful iterations of my dream home—but his Prairie School style was based heavily on his first employee, Marion Mahoney Griffin. Half of the lithographs in Wasmuth Lloyd Wright’s portfolio are the work of Mahony Griffin, despite Lloyd Wright’s attempts to claim otherwise.

Meanwhile, Eileen Gray’s famous house E-1027 on the shores of Cape Martin in France, filled with her original and innovative furniture designs, was left to fall into disrepair – not before Le Corbusier vandalized it himself. (Le Corbusier and Lloyd Wright: Excellent Buildings, Insufferable Personalities.)

In 2013, a petition failed in its attempt to retroactively award Denis Scott Brown the Pritzker Prize; It was awarded only to her husband, Robert Venturi, in 1991, despite the fact that Scott Brown had been co-director of the practice for 22 years. (Only six women have won the award in its history, including Segema and Hadid.) I have lost count of the number of people who believe that both Eames were men.

TThe majority of female architects need to improve then, not only to give due credit to the aesthetic creativity and beauty of their designs and make them tangible, but to facilitate the reality of real life for half the human population. The gradual cultural shift within this field that promotes teamwork, better dialogue with clients and considerations of inclusivity is a testament to the fact that more women are following in the footsteps of the great Norma Merrick Sklarek and her pioneering colleagues. Women are increasingly stepping up in other workplaces thanks to flexible and remote working, mentoring programmes, recruitment reforms and the changing nature of networking events. Architecture should be based on that.