Tag: women in architecture

Women in Architecture: Zaha Hadid

Posted on by Hunter

Breaking boundaries as the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004, Zaha Hadid is recognized as one of the most exceptional designers in history, forging a legacy of innovation and individuality. Despite Hadid’s unexpected death in 2016, her legacy continues through the projects she designed.

Born October, 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq, Hadid studied mathematics as an undergraduate and went on to enroll at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Hadid was advised under Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas, who would later describe Hadid as one of the most exceptional students he ever taught.After graduating, Hadid moved to Rotterdam where she worked for Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). In 1980, after becoming a naturalized citizen of the United Kingdom, Hadid opened her firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, which has developed high-profile and illustrious projects around the world. Hadid and her firm introduced audiences to a new way of conceptualizing modern architecture through extremely detailed sketches rather than postmodern designs.

After graduating, Hadid moved to Rotterdam where she worked for Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). In 1980, after becoming a naturalized citizen of the United Kingdom, Hadid opened her firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, which has developed high-profile and illustrious projects around the world. Hadid and her firm introduced audiences to a new way of conceptualizing modern architecture through extremely detailed sketches rather than postmodern designs.

Vitra Fire Station, designed by Zaha Hadid. Credit: Mondo79 on Flickr Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0 Deed

Vitra Fire Station

The very first building complex designed by Hadid was the Vitra Fire Station, eventually launching her career. One of Hadid’s clients, Rolf Fehlbaum, the president-director of the furniture design firm, Vitra, invited her to design a fire station for his design museum. Building from 1991-1993, Hadid used raw concrete and glass that defined the sculptural building. The station, famous for the dramatic effect of its sharp diagonals converging at its center, only remained functional for a short period and now serves as an exhibit space.

The front of the MAXXI Museum.
MAXXI Museum, Zaha Hadid, Rome, 2010. Credit: Artur Salisz on Flickr Creative Commons, CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed

National Museum of Arts of the 21st Century (MAXXI)

One of Hadid’s more recent designs, the MAXXI was built between 1998 and 2010. The structure appears to be moving and flowing through space in spots, animated by Hadid’s ambition to create movement through the design. Hadid achieved this movement through curving, white walls and the placement of the building extending precariously out over five, thin pylons. Hadid explained that she wanted the design to invoke “confluence, interference, and turbulence.”

The Aquatic Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, designed by Zaha Hadid, used for the 2012 Olympics, London, England, United Kingdom. Credit: Arne Müseler on Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license

London Aquatic Center

Tasked to design the aquatic center for the 2012 Summer Olympics, Hadid again turned to fluidity, this time the convergence of geometry and liquidity found in water. Hadid’s iconic design covers three stadium pools with a complex roof the shape of a parabolic arch dipping into the center that anyone would recognize. The structure was praised by critics for its success in mimicking the “floating” and “undulation” of water, as stated by Rowan Moore.

In addition to receiving the Pritzker Prize, Hadid was recognized with numerous other prestigious awards, including the Royal Institute of British Architecture’s Royal Gold Metal Award, an honor approved by Her Majesty The Queen, and the Jane Dew Prize; she was also appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was honored with a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum.

Women In Architecture: Maya Lin

Posted on by Hunter

American designer, architect, and sculptor, Maya Lin was born in 1959 in Athens, Ohio. Lin rose to national recognition in 1981 as an undergraduate at Yale University when she won a public design competition at 21 years old for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC.

One of 1,422 submissions, including those from established design firms, Lin’s design included a black granite wall with the names of those lost in Vietnam carved into its face. Lin’s design intended to “take a knife and cut into the earth, opening it up, and with the passage of time, the violence and pain would heal.”

Vietnam War Veterans Memorial, designed by Maya Lin. Credit: Wladia drummond on Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

The design was controversial for its lack of tradition and because of Lin’s Asian ethnicity and youth. Today, Lin’s design for the Vietnam Memorial is a pilgrimage site for the friends, family, and comrades of those who died in Vietnam and is an integral part of the National Mall’s landscape. 

Upon graduating from Yale, Lin went on to earn a Master of Architecture from the university in 1986. She opened Maya Lin Studio in New York City, her own design firm which has worked on numerous projects including the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama and the outdoor Wave Field installation at the University of Michigan.

In many ways, Lin identifies as a “designer” rather than an “architect.” Her works focus on the relationship between people and nature, and how people will interact with the space and nature they take up in the future. Lin’s work emphasizes human emotion rather than politics, making the viewer aware of their surroundings in not just a physical, but also psychological way.

Wave Field, Maya Lin, University of Michigan Campus, 1995. Credit: Sharon VanderKaay on Flickr Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0 Deed

Lin’s 1995 design for Wave Field at the University of Michigan is inspired by the motion of fluids and ocean waves. Lin wanted to freeze the motion of water and movement of earth in an interactive earth piece that engaged the viewer more physically than a photograph. Wave Field was Lin’s first piece of earth work and was followed by her 2004 piece, Eleven Minute Line, in Sweden which is composed of a walkway that takes eleven minutes to traverse.

Lin’s architectural works include the plaza for the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, the design for the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City’s Chinatown, and a renovation of the Neilson Library at Smith College.

Lin’s project, “Ghost Forest” is currently on display in New York City’s Madison Square Park. Composed of a forest of dead or “ghost” trees, the installation gives the viewer an eerie vision of an earth damaged from climate change in the not-so-distant future.

In 2009, Lin was awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Barack Obama. In 2016, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Other awards include the 1999 Rome Prize, an election to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2014 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize among numerous other recognitions.

Lin resides in New York City and also has a home in rural Colorado. She is represented by Pace Gallery in New York City and continues to run her own studio.

Women in Architecture: Amanda Levete

Posted on by Hunter

Born in Bridgend, South Wales in 1955, Amanda Levete is known for her innovative practices and making organic and conceptual designs a reality. Levete studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and worked at firms Alsop & Lyall and Richard Rogers Partnership before forming her own London-based firm AL_A (formerly Amanda Levete Architecture) in 2009.

Among Levete’s notable works are the current transformation of Paris’s famous Galeries Lafayette department store, Wadham College at Oxford University, the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (the MAAT) in Lisbon for the EDP Foundation, and a new entrance, gallery, and courtyard for London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon. Credit: Pedro Ribeiro Simões on Wikimedia Commons licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Levete is known for her “intuitive and strategic approach to design” which captures the identity of the urban landscape in which a building is located rather than the identity of the building itself. This approach to architecture and design allows Levete’s creations to interact with the space around them and to become a part of a cityscape rather than existing in a vacuum. 

An example of Levete’s intuitive and strategic approach to design, one that interacts with its surroundings, is her design of a SEPSA subway station in Naples, Italy. Levete’s station design simultaneously functions as a work of art and a subway station that allows commuters to travel with ease while interacting with a brilliant art piece every day. At the surface level, the station becomes a central element to Naples’ Traino district which has suffered from lack of infrastructure and neglect in past years. A large, smooth metal circle made in collaboration with renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor resides above the entrance, welcoming commuters in while reflecting and highlighting the surrounding architecture of the neighborhood to the viewer. Together Levete and Kapoor celebrate the already existing infrastructure of the district while bringing something new to it through the combination of beauty and functionality. 

Similarly, Levete’s work on the transformation of the ‘Cupola’ building of Paris’s Galeries Lafayettes celebrates traditional Haussmann-style architecture in order to create an innovative design in a landmark structure. Levete describes this design as a “metamorphosis,” one that acknowledges the importance Galeries Lafayette has to the daily life of Parisians and the architecture of the city of Paris. The Galeries Lafayette project is still in process and Levete plans to celebrate the original craftsmanship of the building while moving it forward into the lives of future generations of shoppers for years and years to come. 

In 2017, Levete was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to architecture. In 2018, Levete was awarded the Jane Dew Prize by the Architects Journal and Architectural Review. The Jane Dew Prize is seen as one of the biggest architecture prizes awarded to women and recognizes architects who “raised the profile for women in architecture.” Levete has also been awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize which is presented to “the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year.”

Women in Architecture: Denise Scott Brown

Posted on by Hunter

Denise Scott Brown knew from the age of five that she wanted to be an architect. Born in 1931 Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Scott Brown pursued her dream by spending her summers working for architects and studying at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

In 1952, Scott Brown moved to London to work for modernist architect, Frederick Gibberd. While in London, Scott Brown won admission to the prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture before moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1958 to study at the University of Pennsylvania’s planning department and obtain a master’s degree in city planning and architecture.

In 1967, Scott Brown joined Robert Venturi’s architectural firm, Venturi and Raunch, where she became principal in charge of planning in 1969. Scott Brown’s approach to architecture with Venturi was to understand a city in terms of social, economic, and cultural perspectives and to use these perspectives a set of complex systems in which to build a structure.

With Venturi, Scott Brown designed the Bryn Mawr College Campus Center as well as a campus plan in 1997 which considered the campus’s physical character as originally shaped by famous planners and architects Calvert Vaux, Frederick Olmsted, Louis Kahn, and more. The student body of Bryn Mawr College, having grown, needed an expanded campus, and Scott Brown planned an expansion that celebrated the campus’s original orthogonal pattern while accommodating the students’ needs. 

Another of Scott Brown’s designs is for the Japanese Nikko Hotel chain, in which Scott Brown merged the ideals of western comfort with Japanese Kimono patterns to celebrate the heritage of the hotel chain while catering to the western audience. 

In 1989, Venturi and Raunch was renamed to Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, celebrating Scott Brown’s contributions to the firm. The firm is known as one of the most influential architecture firms of its time and is celebrated for radical theories of design while approaching its practice clearly and comprehensively.

In 1991, Robert Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, while Scott Brown was not recognized for her contributions to Venturi’s work. Scott Brown boycotted the award ceremony. In 2013, a student organization titled Women in Design started by Caroline Amory James and Arielle Assouline-Lichten at the Harvard School of Design started a petition for Scott Brown to receive joint recognition for the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Though Scott Brown has still not been awarded joint recognition for the Pritzker Prize, in 2017, she won the prestigious Jane Dew Prize. 

Throughout her career, Scott Brown struggled to be recognized as an equal partner at a male-dominated firm. In 1975, Scott Brown wrote an essay titled “Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture,” though Scott Brown did not publish the essay until 1989 out of fear of damaging her career. The essay became an immediate hit, and Scott Brown has continued to advocate for women in architecture throughout her life.

Women in Architecture: Julia Morgan

Posted on by Nancy

 

 

As part of our ongoing “Women in Architecture” series at Optima, we’re taking a look at another pioneering female figure: Julia Morgan. Like many of the women in this series, Morgan boasts a series of industry firsts. Morgan was the first woman admitted to the architecture program at l’École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the first woman architect licensed in California. Learn more about her extraordinary life and work below:

The Life of Julia Morgan

Julia Morgan was born on January 20, 1872, to parents Charles Bill Morgan and Eliza Woodland Parmelee Morgan as the second of five children. Morgan was also born into generational wealth — her mother Eliza was the daughter of a cotton trader and millionaire. This financial mobility also provided geographic mobility. The Morgans lived on the West Coast, but travelled often to New York to visit mother Eliza’s parents. It was on one of these trips that Julia Morgan (now age six) met her older cousin Lucy Thornton, who was married to successful architect Pierre Le Brun. 

Morgan kept in touch with Le Brun, who encouraged her to pursue higher education, and in 1890, Morgan did just that. She went on to study engineering at the University of California, where she was often the only woman in her math, science, and engineering courses. When she graduated in 1894 (with honors, no less), Morgan became the first woman to earn a B.S. degree in engineering at Berkeley. Encouraged by her professor and mentor, architect Bernard Maybeck, Morgan then went on to be the first woman admitted to study architecture at Maybeck’s alma mater, the prestigious École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Morgan was able to apply to the architecture program thanks in large part to a union of French women artists who pressured the school. When Morgan went to Paris and met this group of women, they introduced her to feminist ideology. And though the Beaux-Arts program prohibited older scholars and Morgan’s 30th birthday (and deadline as a student) approached, Morgan nonetheless earned her certificate in architecture — making her the first woman to do so at the Beaux-Arts, and trumping the certificate completion time of her mentor Maybeck by two years. 

Hearst Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley. Credit: Sanfranman59 on Wikimedia Commons, Multi-license with GFDL and Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5 and older versions (2.0 and 1.0)

The Work of Julia Morgan

Morgan’s extraordinary track record and changemaker ways also carried over to her career. After her education and experience in Paris, she returned to California where she worked with  San Francisco architect John Galen Howard, the supervisor of the University of California Master Plan. In this role, she was the primary designer for the Hearst Greek Theater and also provided the decorative elements for the Hearst Mining Building.

In 1904, Morgan became the first woman to obtain an architecture license in California and she opened her own office in San Francisco shortly after. In addition to being a woman of firsts, Morgan also became a woman that could withstand a series of natural disasters. When her office burned down in 1906, she reopened just a year later in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district. Meanwhile, her first reinforced concrete structure, the 72-foot bell tower at Mills College, El Campani, was constructed in 1904 — and just two years later, famously survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake unscathed.

Casa Grande Hearst Castle, designed by Julia Morgan. Credit: Daderot on Wikimedia Commons, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

The survival of the bell tower launched Morgan’s career and rounded out her reputation, while the devastating aftermath of the earthquake provided countless opportunities to rebuild local structures. Morgan famously redesigned the landmark Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco in just one year, using her new signature: earthquake-resistant reinforced-concrete. This project greatly impressed the Hearst family — among many others — and earned Morgan future projects such as the Hearst Castle (one of the most defining projects of her career) and the opportunity to design a series of YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) buildings across California. 

Though Morgan’s accolades are highly impressive, she lived a notably modest and quiet personal life, having never married, written or spoken much about herself. Despite these humble traits, Morgan nevertheless leaves an ongoing legacy in the strides she made for women in architecture, and the iconic structures she left behind. 

Women in Architecture: Anna Keichline

Posted on by Nancy

Women have been making strides in the field of architecture and design for centuries. Our Women in Architecture series recognizes the pioneering ladies that came before us, and paved the way for a more inclusive and innovative industry today. One such figure is Anna Keichline, whose impressive resume includes titles such as: American architect, inventor, suffragist and World War I Special Agent. 

The Life of Anna Keichline
Anna Keichline was born on May 24, 1889 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. The youngest of four children, Keichline showed creative genius at a young age. Gifted a workshop and carpentry tools by her parents, she spent her free time creating furniture and — at just 14 years old — won a prize at a county fair for a table and chest she’d made. The judges praised her work as comparing “favorably with the work of a skilled mechanic” and she told local reporters she intended to devote her life to industrial design.

It was no surprise then, when she pursued a degree in mechanical engineering, first at Pennsylvania State College and then at Cornell University. It wasn’t unusual during this time for schools to award women “certificates” rather than “degrees,” but when a rumor of this potential began to spread, Keichline’s classmates rallied and threatened to disrupt the commencement ceremony unless she received the degree she had earned. Kiechline graduated in 1911 and became the fifth woman ever to receive an architectural degree from Cornell. Though entering the male-dominated field was a daunting prospect at the time, Keichline felt sure of her place and purpose.

Keichline was an agent of change in all areas of her life: In 1913, she led a Suffragist protest march in her hometown of Bellefonte. She also served as a Special Agent in the Military Intelligence Division in Washington D.C during World War I, describing herself as: “twenty-eight and physically somewhat stronger than the average. Might add that I can operate and take care of a car [she owned her own automobile]. The above might suggest a drafting or office job, but if you should deem it advisable to give me something more difficult or as I wish to say more dangerous, I should much prefer it. You have asked for my salary in order to rate me… last year my fees amounted to something over six thousand. [the equivalent of $92,000 today].”

As Keichline tackled these feats and more, she was simultaneously setting the foundation for her successful career and the impact she would leave on the architectural world.

The Work of Anna Keichline
Keichline believed that there was a place for women in the field of architecture, thanks in part to their unique and innate understanding of space in a home. 

During her post-graduate career, Keichline shared an office with her father (an attorney) and amassed an impressive portfolio of both residential and commercial buildings. She is renowned for becoming the first registered woman architect in Pennsylvania in 1920, where much of her work occurred.

Her work included the Plaza Theater in her hometown Bellefonte (1925) and the Juanita Colony County Clubhouse in nearby Pennsylvania town Mount Union (1927), among many others. She explored many architectural styles throughout her impressive career as well, including Colonial Revival, Gothic Revival and picturesque cottage houses. 

 

Anna Keichline, Building Block, #1,653,771 A, filed March 16, 1926, issued December 27, 1927. Anna Keichline Papers, Ms1989-016, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Anna Keichline, Building Block, #1,653,771 A, filed March 16, 1926, issued December 27, 1927. Anna Keichline Papers, Ms1989-016, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

In addition to designing buildings, Keichline was also an inventor and created many “time- and motion-saving” designs for kitchens and interiors. Overall, she owned seven patents — six for utilities and one for design. While her inventions span from a combination sink and washtub, to a foldaway sleeping bed compartment, to a portable partition replete with doors, windows, and eaves, her most famous invention by far is the “K Brick,” patented in 1927 and honored by the American Ceramic Society in 1931.

A forerunner of concrete block design today, the K Brick was an inexpensive, light, fireproof clay brick that could be filled with insulating or sound-proofing material, used for hollow wall construction. Keichline said of her K Brick that it “requires less to make than brick and because of its design takes less time to fire – the tile would reduce the weight of the wall by one-half.”

While Keichline passed away in 1943, her innovations and impact on the architectural field live on today — making her a remarkable figure and woman in history.

An Inside Look at Siegel Sklarek Diamond

Posted on by Nancy

As part of our Women in Architecture series, we recently wrote a feature on pioneering architect, Norma Merrick Sklarek. Sklarek made waves when she co-founded her own architectural practice — the largest women-owned architectural firm in the country, and the first practice to be co-owned by an Black woman. That firm was Siegel Sklarek Diamond.

Siegel Sklarek Diamond

Siegel Sklarek Diamond was founded in Los Angeles in 1985 by three architects from whom the firm got its name: Margot Siegel, AIA, Norma Merrick Sklarek, AIA and Katherine Diamond, FAIA. Siegel had owned her own business for fourteen years prior, while Sklarek and Diamond both came from jobs working for large companies. 

The trio combined their unique skill sets to build a successful and impressive practice. Siegel took on the task of quality review and preparing working drawings; Sklarek brought her impressive project management abilities and keen architectural sense; Diamond took charge of the design, giving shape to simple ideas and ensuring clients’ needs were met. Overall, their collective style took inspiration from the Bauhaus style, consisting of largely unadorned Cubist structures, but with the three women’s own inventive twist.

According to a Los Angeles Times article published the year after their founding, Siegel Sklarek Diamond, had “a portfolio of nearly a dozen large projects in Southern California with a value of more than $25 million.” Their work covered a broad breadth and depth of categories, including educational facilities and community buildings, as well as commercial and industrial projects. Projects Siegel Sklarek Diamond took on include the Student Counseling and Resource Center (1988) and The Early Childhood Education Center (1989) at the University of California, Irvine and the Los Angeles Air Traffic Control Tower (completed in 1995), among others.

Control Tower at LAX. Credit: Moto “Club4AG” Miwa on Wikimedia Creative Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

In that same article, Diamond is quoted saying that the architecture profession at the time was “definitely an old-boys network,” Diamond said. “It’s definitely a very male-oriented profession, and I think that part (of the reason) is our clients, in order to have the money to hire an architect, tend to be older and more conservative.” As the largest women-owned architectural firm nationally at its time, and the first to be owned by a Black woman, Siegel Sklarek Diamond certainly turned that industry standard on its head and paved the way for many more influential women to follow.

Women in Architecture: Norma Merrick Sklarek

Posted on by Nancy

From well-known figures like Charlotte Perriand to lesser-known names like Eileen Gray, countless women have left their mark on the history of architecture. As part of our Women in Architecture series, today we’re taking a look at another pioneering figure: Norma Merrick Sklarek, a woman who paved the way for generations of African American woman architects to follow.

Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek was born on April 15, 1926, in Harlem, New York. Her parents were both immigrants from Trinidad; her father was a doctor and her mother was a seamstress. Sklarek grew up going to predominantly white schools, where she excelled in math, science and fine arts, encouraged by her father. In fact, he was the one who initially suggested she pursue a career in architecture. 

Sklarek pursued education at Barnard College for a prerequisite year before enrolling at the School of Architecture at Columbia University. Her experience was challenging, but nevertheless she persisted and went on to graduate in 1950 as one of two women and the only African American in her class.

Pacific Design Center
Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles. Credit: Kent Kanouse, Flickr Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed

Career and Work

After graduation, Sklarek faced both gender and racial discrimination in her job hunt and was rejected by nineteen firms. She told a newspaper in 2004, “They weren’t hiring women or African Americans, and I didn’t know which it was [working against me].” She took on a civil service job as a draftsperson for the city of NY, but refused to settle. While working for the city, she took the architectural licensing examination in 1954 and became the first licensed African American woman architect in the state of New York. (Later, this accomplishment would earn her the nickname “the Rose Parks of Architecture.)

As a single mother, Sklarek’s own mom watched her kids while she worked at a variety of architectural firms. The first cordoned her to menial tasks, such as designing bathrooms, while the second gave her more responsibility. At her third firm job, Sklarek noticed her supervisor was particularly scrutinous of her. She carpooled with a white male colleague who was consistently late to work; her boss critiqued Sklarek’s own punctuality but never made mention of the man’s. In response, Sklarek bought her own car. 

In 1959, she became the first African American woman member of the American Institute of Architects and in 1960, the first Black woman licensed as an architect in California. Sklarek rose in rank at her third architectural firm job, overseeing other staff and production processes. Like many women in the field, she remained cordoned to project manager positions, rather than becoming a project architect, despite her aptitude and keen sensibilities. 

She worked on prestigious projects such as the California Mart, Fox Plaza, Pacific Design Center, San Bernardino City Hall, and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. She also continued to accumulate accolades throughout her career, including becoming the first African American woman elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1980. Five years later in 1985, Sklarek co-founded Siegel Sklarek Diamond, the largest woman-owned architectural field in the country and became the first African American woman to co-own an architectural practice. Throughout her lifetime, she served on numerous boards, became an esteemed educator and prioritized mentoring other aspiring architects. She was proud to be a role model for others, acting as a figure that she herself had not had access to on her own journey.

Norma Merrick Sklarek was a pioneer of her own time, and remains today a figure of inspiration for anyone who faces discrimination and prejudice in their field. She proved that you are not what others believe you to be, and fought for others to be able to step into their full potential and leave their own marks on the architectural world.

Female Weavers and the Bauhaus

Posted on by Nancy

The Bauhaus is a renowned institution in the history of Modernist architecture — and art in general. But what may come as a surprise to many: the most commercially successful department of the school was actually the Bauhaus weaving workshop. And even more notable, this workshop was run by a slew of highly innovative, influential female designers.

Anni Albers, Originally produced by the Bauhaus Workshop. Black-White-Red, 1926–27 (produced 1965). © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Anni Albers, Originally produced by the Bauhaus Workshop. Black-White-Red, 1926–27 (produced 1965). © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Defying Expectations

When the Bauhaus opened in 1919, the progressive school was heralded as an equitable place. In fact, its founder Walter Gropius even wrote in the Bauhaus bylaws: “Every eligible person whose talent and training are considered adequate will be accepted without regard to age and sex.” Gropius’s philosophy was stronger in theory than in action. He later became known for believing men thought in three dimensions, while women only thought in two.

Because of this gender bias, when women applied to the school, they were directed away from heavy craft areas, such as carpentry and metalwork, to a workshop considered more appropriate for women. This was the weaving workshop, which Gropius even referred to as “the women’s section” of the school.

Like many other women in architecture, the female weavers at the Bauhaus wouldn’t be put down by others’ limited perspectives. Designers such as Anni Albers, Gunta Stölzl and Otti Berger took the two-dimensional textile craft and breathed new life into it. In addition to creating patterns that were both commercially marketable and had deep influence on the fine arts world of the time, these female weavers also played with form and function. They took weaving beyond the two dimensional — inadvertently, defying Gropius’s backwards beliefs.

Claire Zeisler, Free Standing Yellow, 1968, shown at Weaving Beyond the Bauhaus. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Claire Zeisler, Free Standing Yellow, 1968, shown at Weaving Beyond the Bauhaus. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

A Collaborative Cohort

While the other workshops of the Bauhaus dealt in the highly theoretical and abstract, and often struggled to succeed commercially, the success of the weaving workshop stood in stark contrast. Besides its practical success, the workshop was also notable in the way that its female members taught to and learned from one another in a deeply collaborative process. Because Bauhaus members like Albers went on to teach their learnings globally, the impact of this collaboration is still seen in the weaving world today on figures like Sheila Hicks, Claire Zeisler and others. 

Most recently, the Art Institute of Chicago hosted an exhibit titled Weaving Beyond the Bauhaus, which ran from 2019-2020. The exhibit explored the influence of the Bauhaus weaving workshop across the Atlantic and across the decades. In lieu of traditional placards for each work, viewers navigated the exhibit by reading quote cards from various women in the field, all of whom were in conversation with one another, and with one another’s work. 

The women weavers from the Bauhaus exemplify an ongoing trend in the world of architecture and design: despite the odds or expectations, female designers are always ready and willing to rise to the challenge.

Women in Architecture: Eileen Gray

Posted on by Nancy

While women’s contributions to architecture are celebrated more than ever in modern times, these contributions have always been part of the architectural world — historically, they were just overlooked. As part of our women in architecture series, today we’re spotlighting another strong female figure in Modernism: Eileen Gray. 

Eileen Gray was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Ireland in 1878. Her father, a landscape painter, encouraged Gray’s artistic pursuits so that in 1900, Gray left for Slade School in London to study fine arts in a bohemian, co-ed program that was quite unusual for the time. 

From connections made at Slade, Gray learned to lacquer furniture, eventually opening a studio in 1910 with Japanese craftsman Seizo Sugawara. In fact, Gray was so committed to the trade that she suffered from the so-called lacquer disease — a painful hand rash. Her hard work paid off, however, as she and Sugawara produced commissions for Paris’s wealthy elite.

Bibendum Chair, designed by Eileen Gray. Photo courtesy of EileenGrayDesigns.com
Bibendum Chair, designed by Eileen Gray. Photo courtesy of EileenGrayDesigns.com

Gray’s time lacquering was cut short by World War I. However, after a brief stint driving ambulances during that period, she dove back into the world of interior design. Her most notable project included the Rue de Lota apartment and showcased some of Gray’s most iconic furniture designs, such as the Bibendum Chair (which parodied the shape of the Michelin Man) and the Pirogue Day Bed. Gray’s success led her to open her own shop in 1922, attracting high-caliber clients like Ezra Pound. During that time, she honed her style to become more streamlined and industrial, taking after Modernist inspirations like Le Corbusier.

E-1027, designed by Eileen Gray in France in 1929. Photo courtesy of e1027.org
E-1027, designed by Eileen Gray in France in 1929. Photo courtesy of e1027.org

With the support of her romantic partner, architect Jean Badovici, Gray pursued architecture. And despite not having a formal education in the trade, through apprenticeship and field learning, Gray flourished. Gray’s most notable architectural project was E-1027, a cuboid structure. When Gray finished E-1027, Badovici announced the home in his magazine and claimed himself joint architect. Of the nine architectural projects she completed in her lifetime, Badovici took credit for four of them.The home attracted Le Corbusier, who stayed often and later disrespected Gray’s wishes that the home remain without decor when Corbusier painted Cubist murals of naked women on its walls. Critic Rowan Moore commented on the move by Corbusier in 2013, calling it an “act of naked phallocracy” by a man asserting “his dominion, like a urinating dog, over the territory.”

In spite of the disrespect she faced from her male counterparts, Gray stands evermore steadfast as an influential figure in Modernist history. 

Stay tuned for more features on women in architecture.

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