The “Women in Architecture “exhibition by the Danish Architecture Center aims to open the conversation about women in architecture and showcase their often overlooked, yet substantial contributions to the field. The historical part of the exhibition celebrates untold stories and forgotten accomplishments of women in Denmark from the 1920s to the 1970s. The exhibition also gives the floor to contemporary architects, asking them to share their experiences as architects in Denmark today. To further explore this position, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Siv Helene Stangeland from Helen & Hard , and Ensamble Studio explore the theme of the event inspired by Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essay, “A Room of One’s Own”, in which she asserts that women must be financially independent if they are to be able to create works of significance. They must have a room of their own, in both a physical and metaphorical sense.
Tatiana Bilbao’s response to the theme investigates spaces with various degrees of privacy, places where one can withdraw in order to rest, create or just be. This ability to withdraw is seen as playing a crucial role in developing connections and building communities. The installation, titled “A Room, You and Us”, proposes circular brick structures inspired by the daily life of Cistercian monks, as the daily life at the monastery is centered around varying circles or degrees of intimacy. The installation draws on research conducted by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio for an ongoing project for a Cistercian monastery in Neuzelle, Germany.
Norwegian architect Siv Helene Stangeland from Helen & Hard also explores spaces of intimacy and contemplation through her installation. The “Body & Mind Spa” installation was developed in collaboration with the world-renowned Serbian artist Marina Abramović, born in 1946. The installation defines a private and separate space at Abramović’s holiday home, a place that she can use on her own or with others for the meditative rituals essential to her artistic practice. Helen & Hard found inspiration in Turkish baths, or Hammams, where a number of spa functions are all structured around a central meditation room pierced with a skylight. The exhibition prototype presents a cross-section of the building and the central space, the meditation room.
Débora Mesa, lead architect at Ensamble Studio, reflects upon the creative and intellectual freedom of the artistic process. The installation, titled “The Room” is an experiment that aims to challenge de boundaries of architecture and embrace art and the fast-advancing science of materials. By deconstructing a familiar space, the room, and altering the logic of its fundamental elements like floors, ceilings, or walls, the space breaks with the preconceived idea of what a room is. The resulting structure is light, yet resilient, becoming a form of landscape in the scale of a room. The studio aims to explore and question what a room consists of and how much can you remove before it ceases to be a room. The Room is the result of a creative process shared by Débora Mesa and Antón García-Abril, arising from a collaboration between the men and women that make up their team.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: Women in Architecture presented by Sky-Frame.
Sky-Frame is characterized by its empathic ability to take on different perspectives and points of view. We are interested in people and their visions, whether in architecture or in a social context. We deeply care about creating living spaces and in doing so we also question the role of women in architecture. From the arts to the sciences, women shape our society. We want to shed more light on this role, increase the visibility of Women in Architecture and empower/encourage them to realize their full potential.
Initiated by Sky-Frame, the “Women in Architecture” documentary is an impulse for inspiration, discussion, and reflection. The film's release is on 3 November 2022.
