Episode 1: The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd, chosen by Helen Thomas

On the 10th of May, an incident occurred near Madame ETH’s kiosk, admittedly deliberate. In preparation for a short series of conversations for Women Writing Architecture called ‘A Book I Love’, a small group sat on a sofa to talk about Nan Shepherd’s book ‘The Living Mountain’, and to reflect on how it could be a book about architecture.

With:

Geraldine Tedder (curator and writer), Alicia Yerebakan, (painter, alter-ego is Madame ETH), Adam Caruso (architect and teacher), Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Emilie Appercé (architect)

Where:

In the entrance hall of the Department of Architecture (HIL building) at ETH  Zürich, Hönggerberg campus

Episode 2: Real Estate by Deborah Levy, chosen by Tine Milz

On a sunny morning of mid-July, the sun is already beating down on the small, unnamed square ambushed in the Zurich old town somewhere between the Neumarkt and the Leuengasse. A small group took up position on a bench to discuss the third volume of the living autobiography of the intriguing Deborah Levy.

With:

Tine Milz (theatre director), Geraldine Tedder (curator), Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Emilie Appercé (architect)

Where:

on a public square in Zürich old town

Episode 3 : The Island of missing Trees by Elif Shafak, chosen by Alicia Ayla Yerebakan

On the first afternoon of the new academic year, A-B-I-L’s familiar voices: those of Geraldine, Madame ETH, the WWA editorial team, were joined by Shen He to discuss a popular book, already subject of many book clubs, written by the Turkish author, Elif Shafak.

With:

Geraldine Tedder (curator), Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Emilie Appercé (architect), Alicia Ayla Yerebakan (artist, Madame ETH), Shen He (architect)

Where:

in the shade of a tree in the gardens of the ETH Hönggerberg Campus

Episode 4 : Testo Junkie by Paul Preciado, chosen by Paul Grieguszies and Linda Sjøqvist

One evening of November, the A-B-I-L’s team found themselves in the big, red, and now empty room of the Kino Roland, which used to be a sex cinema on the Langstrasse just a few steps away from the main station of Zürich. The collective Querformat occupied the site for a few weeks during this indefinate interim period of the building’s life to put it under investigation. Paul, part of Querformat and Linda, engaging with the Parity Group at the ETH, chose the provocative text of Testo Junkie to discuss the different states of what a transformation can be.

With:

Geraldine Tedder (curator), Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Emilie Appercé (architect), Alicia Ayla Yerebakan (artist, Madame ETH), Paul Grieguszies Schäfer (architect), Linda Dannesboe Sjøqvist (architect)

Where:

at Kino Roland, Langstrasse 111, 8004 Zurich

Video Artwork (extract) from Mathilde Agius

Episode 5: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, chosen by Nana Biamah-Ofosu and Laura Evans

For this first international encounter, A-B-I-L voices, Geraldine, Madame ETH, the WWA editorial team invited Nana Biamah-Ofosu and Laura Evans to discuss around the book Purple Hibiscus, how fiction can be a place that gives a tool, a language, a way of thinking to pose the ideas architectural education might not challenge.

With:

Geraldine Tedder (curator), Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Emilie Appercé (architect), Alicia Ayla Yerebakan (artist, Madame ETH), Nana Biamah-Ofosu (architect), Laura Evans (architect)

Where:

in the Foyer of the Barbican in London, in Zürich, in Lucerne

Episode 6: King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes, chosen by Carmen Van Pamel

We recorded the 6th episode of A-B-I-L at After 8 Books in Paris. This wonderful bookshop and publisher also runs an intense programme of events. On 16 February, we sneaked in before opening hours to hold our incidental conversation about Virginie Despentes’ provocative book, King Kong Theory.

With:

Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Emilie Appercé (architect), Alicia Ayla Yerebakan (artist, Madame ETH), Carmen Van Pamel (writer, architect)

Where:

in the bookshop After 8 Books, 7 Rue Jarry, in Paris

Episode 7: Slowly: a plainsong from an older woman to a younger woman by Judy Grahn, chosen by Geraldine Tedder

In August 2023, we met in Ennenda and you will hear some familiar voices of A-B-I-L, joined by the German artist Gritli Faulhaber.

The conversation deals with the challenging but fruitful issue of how poetry can be writing about architecture, and this is addressed in several ways as we talk about the poem Slowly: a plainsong from an older woman to a younger woman by poet and activist, Judy Grahn.

With:

Tine Milz (theatre director), Geraldine Tedder (curator), Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Emilie Appercé (architect), Alicia Ayla Yerebakan (artist), Gritli Faulhaber (artist)

At:

Ennenda, Glarus

Episode 8: Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, chosen by Mariana Siracusa

In December 2023, we travelled to Milan to visit Spazio. This bookshop is edited by and filled with the presence of Mariana Siracusa. On display is a carefully chosen, read through, and ever-changing list of 300 old, rare and newly published books.

Mariana, who is from Argentina but who spent time at the CCA in Montreal, was joined by an uncharacteristically small number of people – just two: Helen Thomas of women writing architecture and architect and Canadian Adam Caruso, to discuss how this provocative book by Margaret Atwood, first published in 1972, could be relevant to the architectural discourse, and specifically Canadian architecture and it’s context in Canadian nature, and the Canadian immigrant experience.

With:

Mariana Siracusa (bookseller and scholar), Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher), Adam Caruso (architect and teacher)

At:

Spazio, Milan

Episode 9: The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing, chosen by Jaehee Shin

In February 2025, four of us met around a small table at entrance to the Frauenkulturarchiv in the historic heart of Chur. This reading room in an extensive library and archive of documents collected about the lives and activities of the women of the Swiss Canton of Graubünden was founded in 1997 by Silvia Hofmann and Silke Redolfi.

Jaehee, who is from Korea but who has lived in Europe, in Germany and Switzerland, for ten years was joined by her friends Paul Grieguszies and Ji Min An, both practising architects, with a colleague at women writing architecture, Helen Thomas. Together they delved into Tsing’s optimistic ‘end of the world’ to reflect together ‘On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins,’ and what that might mean for architecture.

With:

Jaehee Shin (architect and editor), Paul Grieguszies (architect), Ji Min An (architect), and Helen Thomas, (architect, writer, and publisher)

At:

Frauenkulturarchiv, Chur