Women Writing Architecture

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SOFA 2 : Dwelling – Drifting and Staying

SOFA 4 : Architecting as a Woman – Insecurity, Imperfection, and (In)safety

SOFA 3 : How Buildings Are Built X Completion-poly

SOFA 1 : Architecture School

Soyeong Park on SOFA magazine

  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 […]

26 June, 2024
Soyeong Park
Celebrando Wera Meyer-Waldeck Bauhaus Women

Las mujeres de la Bauhaus

Carmen Espegel on Mujeres de la Bauhaus, de lo bidimensional al espacio total

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 […]

22 May, 2024
Carmen Espegel
On motherhood

La donna clitoridea e quella vaginale

Manifesto di Rivolta Femminile

Sputiamo su Hegel

Annamaria Prandi on Sputiamo su Hegel

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 […]

20 May, 2024
Annamaria Prandi
Being a Stranger

The Cost of Living

Things I Don’t Want to Know

Real Estate

Natália Peťková on Things I Don’t Want to Know, The Cost of Living & Real Estate

Deborah Levy is a British novelist, playwright and poet. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the granddaughter of working-class Lithuanian Jewish immigrants on her paternal side and an upper-middle-class English family on her maternal side.  Her father, Norman Levy, was a historian and a member of the African National Congress. He lived under a banning order from the Apartheid government from […]

19 March, 2024
Natália Peťková

The Non-Monogamy Letters

Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto

Het monogame drama

Shen He on texts by Simon(e) von Saarloos

On Valentine’s Day 2024, Shen He invited a group of people for an Anti-Valentine’s discussion and meal. These were Geraldine Tedder, Tine Milz and Helen Thomas, who came to Kunsthalle Winterthur for a conversation about Simon(e) von Saarloos and their book Playing Monogamy, which brought several of their works into play. Each of the speakers […]

5 March, 2024
Shen He, Geraldine Tedder, Helen Thomas, Tine Milz, Niloofar Rasooli

Juliaan Lampens

Kenneth Andrew Mroczek on Juliaan Lampens

Kenneth Andrew Mroczek suggested Juliaan Lampens, edited by Angelique Campens, to women writing architecture. He sent us a link with the following review by jw468 on Goodreads: September 13, 2014 Originally posted 04/09/2014 I put off ordering a copy of this book and now it’s become expensive; however, the graphic designer has made the entire […]

29 February, 2024
Kenneth Andrew Mroczek

Bad Behaviour

Efua Boakye on Bad Behaviour

Bad Behaviour consists of multiple short stories. Set in 80s New York, Gaitskill’s narratives capture the essence of the city through the way the characters interact with one another. Not only are the stories in the book about interpersonal relationships and how people treat each other, but the descriptions of the spaces that the characters […]

31 January, 2024
Efua Boakye
On motherhood

Baggage: My Childhood

Ellis Woodman on Baggage

While renowned for her subsequent career as a broadcaster and newspaper editor, Janet Street-Porter spent two years as a student at the Architectural Association from 1965-67. The first volume of her autobiography Baggage: My Childhood (2004) offers a richly evocative description of the AA at a time of dramatic social and artistic upheaval. Her experiences […]

25 January, 2024
Ellis Woodman
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Nicolai Dinkel on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

While exploring the Kunsthaus Zürich, I observed a recurring pattern within my group – each time we encountered a new entrance, we would come to a halt. Our guide would then share insights about the Kunsthaus or read aloud an article, adding an enriching layer to our visit. It intrigued me to realize the frequency […]

15 January, 2024
Nicolai Dinkel
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Che Facchin on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

The Reading Circle started off with a separation of the attendees into groups. Every group would receive a certain perspective into the world of the Kunsthaus, all of which were then discussed collectively. The visit confirmed many opinions I had already had of highly institutionalized museums, like the atmosphere of tension or the high threshold […]

15 January, 2024
Che Facchin
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Fabian Güzelgün on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

The rain was pouring while we were standing at the entry in front of the Kunsthaus. A well-needed canopy in our own hands, thanks to the colleagues who were prepared and brought an umbrella. We waited for the church bells to ring at 9 am and then ran inside, together with the other “kaffee schabracken” […]

15 January, 2024
Fabian Güzelgün
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Julian Merlo on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

The Reading Circle at the Kunsthaus Zürich guided us through the highly contested art institution, a “box with only backsides” as it was described in the closing discussion. These “backsides” became even more apparent in our tour, led by (students impersonating) the cleaning team, an invisible workforce, operating out of hidden “backrooms” and closed doors, […]

15 January, 2024
Julian Merlo
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Ladina Naegeli on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Arriving in front of the Kunsthaus the rain trickles on my head. There is no shelter, not even at the tram next to me. Why wouldn’t they make the entrance more comfortable? I’m sorted into a small group of 6 people, and I suspect some went to the wrong one. Our group is then led […]

15 January, 2024
Ladina Naegeli
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Lukas Nussbaumer on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

From accepted and unaccepted donations Opposite the Kunsthaus on Heimplatz is the Schauspielhaus Zurich: Pfauen. During the National Socialist era, it was the only free theatre stage in the German-speaking world. This made it a centre for German and Austrian actors who emigrated from their home countries, and thus it was also a centre of […]

15 January, 2024
Lukas Nussbaumer
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Xiaoyu Yang on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Raindrops falling onto the pavement and bouncing off umbrellas. Sounds flood my ears; cars honking, the siren of an ambulance, the flickering of traffic lights and the voices of strangers as they pass us. My thoughts get muffled by the chaos of the crossing. As we stand in the rain, the concrete structure that is […]

15 January, 2024
Vivian Xiaoyu Yang
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Jonas Zimmermann on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Where is the place for protest? On the tour of the Kunsthaus Zürich, the guides presented us with quotes criticising the Kunsthaus. Criticism does not leave the Kunsthaus unscathed. It does not refuse to engage in discourse but tends to play a defensive and conservative role. The ground floor of the Moserbau currently houses an […]

15 January, 2024
Jonas Zimmermann
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Romina Züst on Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

Where is the space for protest? With this question in mind, we went on a journey through the Kunsthaus Zürich. From the small entrance area, through the gigantic foyer, up the steep staircase until we reached the Emil Bührle collection on the top floor. Walking through the exhibition gave me pause for thought. A businessman […]

15 January, 2024
Romina Züst
On success ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

Camilla Alves Nunes Köppel on The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

A discussion with a fellow student made me think that everything in this day and age is dependent on money. People set a price for all objects. Market players are given a decisive role in determining artistic value, thus linking the art world with the market world. The Reading Circle group represented this connection between […]

15 January, 2024
Camilla Alves Nunes Köppel
On success ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

Dimitri Bleichenbacher on The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

How are artists trained today? What service do they provide? How much is an artwork worth? What is the market price? What is value? Why is ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts) no longer decentrally spread over the city of Zürich? Is Toni-Areal really the place where contemporary artists are educated? Why in an impermeable […]

15 January, 2024
Dimitri Bleichenbacher
On success ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

Léa De Piccoli on The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

for the Reading Circle RaMPE Grand Opening, on the 8th of November 2023, at Löwenbräukunst, Limmatstrasse 268 & 270, 8005 Zürich   Andrea Fraser or the irony as a tool for “institutional critique”   „There is indeed much to suggest that in recent years, whether or not an artwork was considered artistically relevant depended to […]

15 January, 2024
Léa De Piccoli
On success ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

Laura Oberholzer on The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

What is the main focus of consumption at a vernissage? Is it about the art or is it about the drinks, the exchange, seeing and being seen? Does the artwork lose more and more value and does the character of the artist and his performance gain in importance? I can’t remember the art, but I […]

15 January, 2024
Laura Oberholzer
On success ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Autumn Semester Readings 2023

The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

Anna Rothstein on The Triumphant Progress of Market Success

I had a lot of fun at the Löwenbräu Reading Circle. The way they opened the imaginary exhibition made me think of all the real vernisages and openings I have been to. What drew my curiosity, was the hierarchy of all the different characters involved. Questions like “Who makes the most money?” or “What degree […]

15 January, 2024
Anna Rothstein
ETH Zurich Studio Caruso Spring Semester Readings 2022

Why Are People Being So Nice?

Victoria Balmer, James Flaus, Wen Guan, Sophie Kalwa on Why Are People Being So Nice?

This group chat is the result of a reading circle performance within the context of Studio Caruso at ETH Zurich during the spring semester of 2022. By drafting an overly exciting email, a chat about why we are „being so nice“ started. During the discussion, the exact same medium which was criticized by Rosler, was […]

15 January, 2024
Sophie Kalwa, Wen Guan, James Flaus, Victoria Balmer

Autenticità e progetto

Raffaella Poletti on Autenticità e progetto

Almost 25 years after publishing her first book, L’architetto fuori di sé (1982), and more than 35 years since her first questions around self-awareness, Marta Lonzi uses a key word in the feminist lexicon, Authenticity, as a litmus test to reread the history of architecture in search of ethical connotations. Her book, Autenticità e progetto, […]

12 December, 2023
Raffaella Poletti
Library of the Royal Institute of British Architects

Mujeres: Espacio y arquitectura

L’architetto fuori di se

Raffaella Poletti on L’architetto fuori di sé

In the early months of 1982, at the height of Postmodernism, a very atypical book was published in Italy, which was L’architetto fuori di sé, by Marta Lonzi. This is a book on architecture, but published by a feminist publisher; it is a critique on the practice of architectural design at the time, but written […]

12 December, 2023
Raffaella Poletti
Gender, Sexuality, and the Built Environment Feminism and Architecture Baubibliothek ETH Zürich Gender, Architecture and the Construction of Modernity (2020) Library of the Royal Institute of British Architects

Gender, Space, Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

Jasmine Yu on Gender Space Architecture

Jane Rendell’s introductory writing to part two of the book Gender Space Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Introduction provides a feminist discourse on the intricate relations between gender and space. A series of multidisciplinary gender analyses are drawn upon to challenge the existing paradigm of classifying spaces according to the biological sex of its users (e.g. public […]

26 November, 2023
Jasmine Yu
Feminism and Architecture

Arab Women in Architecture

Women Architects and Modernism in India Narratives and Contemporary Practices

Mayyasah Akour on Women Architects and Modernism in India

Desai’s introduction to “Women Architects in India” encapsulates perfectly how similar the discourse of feminism in architecture is across the world. It is not particularly limited to the western world (although many of the regions that reveal a similar fight have in the past been colonized by a western entity). With certain contextual nuances in […]

25 November, 2023
Mayyasah Akour
Feminism and Architecture

Suffrage city: spatial knowledge and suffrage work in Bath, 1909-1914

Olivia Janiszewski on Suffrage City

In Cynthia Hammond’s text titled “Suffrage City: spatial knowledge and Suffrage Work in Bath, 1909-1913” written in 2013, she answers “how early twentieth-century feminists used the larger space of the city for their cause” (Hammond 133) in response to “the special nature of suffrage activism in Bath” (Hammond 134). Her goal was to understand how […]

24 November, 2023
Olivia Janiszewski
Feminism and Architecture

Domesticity, Gender, and Architecture

Nuoya Fang on Domesticity, Gender, and Architecture

Lillian Chee’s chapter, “Domesticity, Gender, and Architecture” provides a rich analysis of the complex interplay between domesticity, gender, and architecture. The text engages with a variety of disciplines, historical examples, and contemporary perspectives to offer a nuanced understanding of the implications of domestic spaces in shaping and reflecting societal norms. One key aspect of Chee’s […]

24 November, 2023
Nuoya Fang
Gender, Sexuality, and the Built Environment Feminism and Architecture

Conflicting Landscape Values: The Santa Clara Pueblo and Day School

Alexa Sharp on Conflicting Landscape Values

Rina Swentzell utilizes her childhood memories of school to illustrate the importance of place in a person’s development. Born into a Pueblo in Santa Clara, ones’ connection to the cosmos and the earth was considered vital. Her community consisted of a large courtyard building that was constructed of earthen materials by everyone in the Pueblo. […]

23 November, 2023
Alexa Sharp
Feminism and Architecture

On the Inside: Preserving Women’s History in American Libraries

Erica Vinson on Preserving Women’s History in American Libraries

Abigail Van Slyck’s exploration of the library interior is a compelling description of the importance of women and women’s labour on the architectural interior and the structural barriers that continue to keep women’s narratives out of history. In On the Inside: Preserving Women’s History in American Libraries, Van Slyck advocates for preserving the interior and […]

23 November, 2023
Erica Vinson
Feminism and Architecture

Interiors: nineteenth-century essays on the ‘masculine’ and the ‘feminine’ room

Maria Lederer on Interiors: nineteenth-century essays

In a feminist review by Juliet Kinchen, “Interiors: nineteenth-century essays on the ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ room” unpacks the constraining gender normalities that existed in the Western world for users of the home. The author initially states that the home represents the “antithesis of public space” (Kinchen, 13), an environment in which women, the assigned decorators […]

21 November, 2023
Maria Lederer
Feminism and Architecture Gender, Architecture and the Construction of Modernity (2020)

Battle Lines: E. 1027

Isabel Cano on Battle Lines: E.1027

Beatriz Colomina discusses the vandalism rendered by Le Corbusier on E. 1027, a house designed, built, and inhabited by the architect Eileen Gray. The author presents the degrees of Le Corbusier’s invasion on Gray’s architecture and identity and compares it to the traces of violence of the bullet marks left all over the walls of […]

20 November, 2023
Isabel Cano
On success Gender, Sexuality, and the Built Environment Feminism and Architecture Loké Parlour Reading Room 2: The profession through an intersectional lens Contemporary Women Architects: Theories, Practices, Positions (2020)

Room at the Top, Sexism and the Star System in Architecture

Katia Broz on Room at the Top

Throughout architectural history, women were always in the background, many shadowed by their male coworkers or husbands. Just like Denise Scott Brown with Robert Venturi, incredibly talented female architects had major roles in contributing to great designs, but never received the recognition they deserved. In this text, Scott Brown advocates for the importance of accurately […]

20 November, 2023
Katia Broz
Being a Stranger

Asylum Road

Natália Peťková on Asylum Road

Olivia Katarina Sudjic (born 1988) is a young British fiction writer Sudjic was born in London, England. Her father is Dejan Sudjic who grew up in Acton, London; his parents, who were immigrants from Yugoslavia, spoke Serbo-Croatian at home. Sudjic’s third novel Asylum Road was published in 2021. Therein, the narrator Anya is from Sarajevo. […]

17 November, 2023
Natália Peťková
Being a Stranger

Whereabouts

Natália Peťková on Whereabouts

Nilanjana Sudeshna or ‘Jhumpa’ Lahiri is a Bengali American author of novels, short stories and essays. She writes in English and, more recently, in Italian. Lahiri was born in London to Indian immigrant parents and moved to the United States with her family when she was three years old. Her work is largely autobiographical and […]

17 November, 2023
Natália Peťková
Feminism and Architecture

Unforgetting Women Architects: From the Pritzker to Wikipedia

Juliette Bélanger on Unforgetting Women Architects

In her 2016 book, Where Are the Women Architects? author Despina Stratigakos dedicates a chapter to ‘Unforgetting Women Architects: A Confrontation with History and Wikipedia.’ In this extensive work, Stratigakos, a writer, historian, and professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo, elucidates the challenges faced by women in the architectural profession. She explicitly identifies […]

16 November, 2023
Juliette Bélanger