A conversation with Hélène—of sorts. “Sugar and spice and all things nice. That’s what little girls are made of.” No doubt, the theory of the girl needs some reclaiming, for girls can be dirty, and not very nice—and why should they be deprived of these dubious traits? You dirty slut. In May 2024, the Danish […]
On the occasion of Mindy’s Cyberfeminism Index tour, the WWA editors Emilie Appercé and Jaehee Shin met with her at the Zurich University of the Arts to exchange about the evolution of her project since she launched the website in 2020 and the future of the index, which now exists in both digital and physical […]
Little spaces or Little places? Or Little sceneries. Kumiko Inui (1969-), a Japanese female architect, describes a situation she encountered during her visit to a nursery who was the client for her first project. The office of the nursery was overwhelmed with documents and other objects and in this midst of things, she found a […]
The written and film work of Amélie Essesse is about the historic construction methods of mud construction by women in western Africa is of note. Her work encompasses many layers of these filters and spans from workshops in New Mexico to Paris, as well as community implementation in western African historic preservation.
As students in the NEW ORDER studio at the Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio, led by Clancy Moore, Oliver Canins, Kim Gubbini and Victoria Jabbour used the novel Cold Enough for Snow as a starting point and guide for the developments of their design projects. This is a selection of the memory drawings and and fragment […]
As students in the NEW ORDER studio at the Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio, led by Clancy Moore, Elena Gallo and Tahnee Rutter used the novel Swing Time as a starting point and guide for the developments of their design projects. This is a selection of the memory drawings and and fragment models that they made.
As students in the NEW ORDER studio at the Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio, led by Clancy Moore, Dawid Roszkowski & Dongyong Oh used the novel Purple Hibiscus as a starting point and guide for the developments of their design projects. This is a selection of the memory drawings and and fragment models that they made.
As a student in the NEW ORDER studio at the Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio, led by Clancy Moore, Albert Jiménez Rodríquez used the novel Swing Time as a starting point and guide for the developments of his design project. This is a selection of the memory drawings and and fragment models that he made.
Context The essay discusses representation and architectural theory through the lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), a framework developed by Bruno Latour, and others. ANT emphasizes that meaning and definition come from relationships and that those are forever shifting. Therefore, the dynamic and interconnected nature of social and material worlds challenges the sometimes static or isolated […]
Anne Massey has been a fundamental figure for me. In her historical reconstruction of the Independent Group, she skilfully highlighted their contribution to the history of art, architecture, and design, offering a fresh and female point of view. She perfectly embodies my idea of the transition from merely “looking” to truly “seeing”. Beyond emphasising the […]
I have not always been an architectural historian; in fact, I kind of stumbled into the world of architectural history after a chance discovery of the work of Lauretta Vinciarelli during my Ph.D. Over the course of my graduate studies, my relationship to architecture evolved from a purely formalist one, coming from a studio arts […]
As for a book that has acted as a companion text for me, one to which I keep returning, it is an Italian one: Maria Luisa Scalvini, L’immagine storiografica dell’architettura contemporanea, da Platz a Giedion, Officina Edizioni, Rome, 1984. It was the first book that made me truly understand what a historiographic construction is, revealing the subjectivity […]
As the saying goes, people tend to gather with their own kind, and over the past few years I, Jaehee, have been introduced to this book Trockenmauern : Grundlagen, Bauleitung, Bedeutung by three very close people in my life. Ji Min An, Ramun Capaul and Selmar Binder. Although I have had this thick red book in […]
Context “Throwing Like a Girl” was first presented in 1977, at a time when feminist theory was engaged with phenomenology and existentialism. Feminist theorists resisted the idea that men and women were the same and pushed for institutional and societal reform because of inherent patriarchal systems. The essay examines how norms shape the feminine movement […]
Abandoned land, vacant lots emerge from human neglect, yet the urban wilds that form in these spaces challenge our perception of nature. For humans, nature has long been a target of conquest, a source of endless resources. After industrialization, it became a romanticized refuge—a pristine wilderness offering escape from artificial environments. In both cases, nature […]
Two sisters, one officially mad, and a male refugee, escaped from hell and are still fighting the nightmare back. Their somewhat distorted perception of the built environment proves yet to be an acute one: doors are tricky thresholds to frightening memories, every tiny detail matters. This tale explores our intuitive relationship with architectural elements and […]
In this novel, Australian writer Pip Williams combines historical facts with fiction. The facts are based on the long and arduous process it took to compile and publish the venerable Oxford English Dictionary which took place from 1857-1928. The fiction describes the life of Esme, the book’s main character, who is the daughter of one […]
Jale Nejdet Erzen’s Mimar Sinan: An Aesthetic Analysis transcends a simple exploration of Sinan’s life and works. Erzen contends that reducing his architecture to formal or technical terms alone would be an incomplete view. She argues that Sinan’s creations are deeply influenced by the societal, cultural, and technical contexts of his time, creating profound relationships […]
We love shacks, because they pose impossible questions. How can we change what we need? How can we fearlessly acknowledge weakness as an animate and constructive content of collectivity? Lisa Robertson, Occasional Works:185 Lisa Robertson‘s Office for Soft Architecture (OSA) is a conceptual and poetic project that explores the intersections of architecture, urbanism, language, and […]
Since the rise of modernity, humans have largely disregarded the value of non-human entities such as nature, technology, and other non-human beings. Should this approach be rethought, and should the distinction between human and non-human subjects be abolished? In a seminar course on architectural criticism titled ‘Architecture × Nature’ at the Korea National University of […]
A WHITE SANCTUARY E-1027, a house born from a collaboration between Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici, was conceived and designed with emotions. It reflects their shared ideals and their individual perspectives while also embodying their relationship. Gray brought an acute understanding of how people live, creating spaces that respond to both practical needs and emotional […]
Both Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter and Immanuel Kant’s distinction between the phenomenal and noumenal worlds provide profound frameworks for understanding Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain. Bennett’s concept of vibrant matter challenges the traditional dichotomy between human and non-human realms, suggesting that all entities – animate and inanimate – possess vitality and agency. Kant’s division between […]
The Ornamental Design of the Chosun Dynasty House written by Chun Byung-Ok, shows a wide array of elements of the Hanok, the traditional Korean house, using photographs, drawings, and text. Covering everything from floor plans to individual pieces of furniture, the book reveals diverse aspects of traditional Korean architecture that are often overshadowed by […]
As I approached one of the most fascinating residential complexes I’ve had the chance to visit in Brazil, a new storefront caught my eye. It’s been over a decade since I began viewing that part of the city through an architectural lens, and COPAN—the iconic housing project by Oscar Niemeyer in São Paulo—is no stranger […]
노을 위의 은빛 창문에서 구만리 희미한 세상을 내려다보고, 바닷가 문에서 삼천 년 상전벽해를 웃으며 보고 싶다. 손으로 하늘의 해와 별을 돌리고 몸소 구천의 바람과 이슬 속을 노닐고 싶다. From a silver window overlooking the sunset, I look ten thousand miles to the dim world below. On the seaside door, I want to contemplate the three-thousand-year-old […]
‘Sua Maestà,’ I say. Then I bow and close my eyes. Gran Sasso d’Italia, ‘Your Majesty,’ is not just a mountain. She is a magnificent and omnipotent entity, a deity that has watched me grow up and offered me comfort when I needed it. Whenever I stand in her vicinity, I offer a salute. I […]
Just kids. More than a biography. A quest. A story of self-discovery. In Patti Smith‘s narrative, the spaces she inhabits transcend mere physical settings. They are the silent architects of her identity, shaping not only her artistry but also the very essence of her being. Each place in the story—be it the chaotic streets of […]
Fifty-five stories by a photographer Jeeyoun Kim began taking photographs in her early 50s, and then published a book of prose, rather than photographs, in her 70s. ‘I struggled through middle age. When I turned fifty, I finally found photography’, she wrote in her autobiography, Life in the Fog. In various solo exhibitions including ‘Rice […]
Sara Hendren provides a series of vivid stories drawn from the lived experience of disability and the ideologies and innovations that have emerged from it. ‘What Can a Body Do?’ is a phrase initially coined by philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler in conversation with Sunaura Taylor in The Examined Life, a documentary which has […]
In the midst of the Portuguese dictatorial regime (1933-1974), Maria Lamas (1893–1983) wrote in 1948 a book titled As Mulheres do Meu País (The Women of My Country). Intended to portray and highlight the experiences of women as well as to report the policies imposed on them during the regime, this book, in my view, […]
The mountain is not a place to which you go. It is a place you become. The description of the Cairngorm Mountains in The Living Mountain speaks directly to my soul, as someone who only feels complete with mountains around. When I read the book before visiting Scotland, it could just as well have been a […]
At its core, The Living Mountain conveys that true understanding and connection with nature arise not from dominance but through a quiet harmony and reflective stillness. This insight resonates deeply with the work I’m pursuing this semester in Studio Caruso, where we are exploring the themes of remoteness and identity in the Swiss Alps. Though […]
I’m particularly interested in this poem by Violet Jacob, who was a posh woman from a big house, the House of Dun in Montrose. She was encouraged in her writing by journalist, writer and editor Hugh MacDiarmid, who lived nearby. When her only son died in the First World War, it influenced her poetry. I […]
I no longer recall exactly when I first encountered Audre Lorde’s essay “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1983), but after reading it, the text stayed with me, becoming one of the sharpest tools in my life—particularly, during my studies in architecture within a European context. In this essay, Lorde emphasizes […]
Everything we release comes back to us in some form, like an endless stream of looped rivers. And it flows everywhere, whether it is clumped or unclumped. It is in this sense that there is no nature untouched by humans. The entire system changes when some artificial action occurs. At first, people believed that changes […]
Although the title suggests that this book is about writing a dissertation, the content goes well beyond that. It is about going through and hopefully finishing a project, when several other projects and obligations run in parallel. It is about female life in contemporary western societies, where women but also people are expected to fulfill […]
Helen Thomas : Group two, Session two! So we’re going to start off by reading out the statements by the first group to read this text going around in groups there are six statements and so somebody from each group is going to read one statement to each. A. Disrupting dualism by acting […]
In the summer of 2024, Carla Capaul, director of the Hotel Alpina Lumbrein in Val Lumnezia, Graubünden, and Jaehee Shin, editor at Women Writing Architecture, met in the gardens of zum Alten Löwen in Zurich to talk about Annelise Leu, Switzerland’s first female hotelier, and her granddaughter Nina Zumthor, who has written a book about […]
I sometimes indulge in imagining my ‘dwelling of dreams’, even though I am pessimistic about ever being in a position to actualise my perfect space. hooks’s essay poignantly touches on the power of the imagination, the politics of space, who gets to access architecture and cultural differences in approaches to building and placemaking.
The Power of Place, published in 1997, is relevant to anyone involved in the process of spatial and cultural production, or to young architects in search of alternative practices. It is for those who acknowledge the real way architects work, as a collective enterprise, which is not often the way architects talk about their work. […]
For Women Writing Architecture, Silvia Federici’s book, Caliban and the Witch, is a central and influential text. Not bound by academic methodology and written with ideological energy it is easy to read without being explicitly emotional. Federici challenges and questions the location of women in history as hidden and secondary through her examination of one […]
Berta Rahm is an important inspiration for women writing architecture, especially through her publishing work, which she carried out under the title ALA Verlag (1966-1993). Pionierinnen und Pioniere is one of the books that she produced during that time. Edited and written with her colleague, Renate Möhrmann, the pioneers referred to in the longer […]
The text below contains my contribution to the printed book, ‘Lives of the Most Excellent Architects’, edited and curated by Thomas Weaver and Cecilia Da Pozzo (2024). This work stems from a course taught during the spring semester of 2024 in Mendrisio. In this piece, I present an intimate conversation with Lilly Reich, which serves as […]
Although written in German, this story uncovering a complex socio-economic situation can be understood with even a rudimentary – a childlike – grasp of the language. That is, I, a perpetual student of German, could follow it, supported by sequences of drawings that show in fascinating detail the human, the architectural, landscapes of Glarus and […]
Margaret Hicks, does this name sound familiar? To me, it was unheard of before reading Despina Stratigakos’s book ‘Where are the Women Architects?’. Somehow, sadly, Margaret was the first US woman to obtain a degree in architecture, more than that, she was the first ever woman to have her work published in an architectural journal, […]
It’s common to greet someone by asking ‘Have you eaten?’ or saying ‘Let’s have a meal’ in Korea. It is seen as a way to build intimacy. The kitchen is therefore the heart of the home, where meals are prepared and organised. The author of The Modern Kitchen – Birth and Other Stories, Younjung Do, […]
Completion-poly 준공마블, a board game created by the Society of Feminist Architects, or SOFA for short, reminded me of the acclaimed Korean Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, The FAR Game: Constrains Sparking Creativity. If the FAR Game which stands for the game of Floor Area Ratio, visualized […]
Aotearoa New Zealand has long been recognised as a place that advances the standing of women in society. It was, after all, the first country in the world to grant women the vote, in 1893. But, to date, there has been no comprehensive account of women in architecture in Aotearoa New Zealand aimed at a […]
Nos encontramos ante un apasionante escrito donde Josenia Hervás registra la historia de la Escuela de la Bauhaus desde una perspectiva singular y novedosa, la de género, que permitirá comprender, de forma más amplia y objetiva, lo que aconteció dentro de los muros de tan innovadora escuela. Entre los consabidos relatos e imágenes de esta […]
Carla Lonzi’s figure is fundamental for understanding Italian feminism in the 1970s, within which Lonzi occupied a radical position that can be understood by reading three books by her: Manifesto di Rivolta Femminile (1970), Sputiamo su Hegel (1978) and La donna clitoridea e quella vaginale (1974). These and other texts were published at the time […]
After Lucia Moholy’s partner Theodor Neubauer was arrested in her absence in their shared flat in Berlin in 1933, she fled to Paris via Prague and Vienna without any of her belongings. There she tried in vain to use press pressure to get Neubauer out of prison. In March 1934, she continued her escape – with […]