Looking back at 2022, last year had seen major female-led stories. Kimberly Dowdell was chosen as AIA’s First Black Woman President, Carol Ross Barney has received the 2023 AIA Gold Medal, Jeanne Gang won the 2023 Charlotte Perriand Award, Frida Escobedo was selected among the 100 Emerging Leaders by TIME 2022, Renée Gailhoustet was presented with the 2022 Royal Academy Architecture Prize, "Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy" opened at the 2022 Biennale of FRAC in France, and ArchDaily presented SkyFrame’s Women in Architecture’s documentary, following Toshiko Mori, Gabriela Carrillo and Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, three architects in three different countries, in different contexts, at different stages of their life and career, but with a lot in common. And that's just to name a few...
After arguing in 2021 “why is it still important to talk about "female architects"? and contributing to “rebalancing forces and adjusting narratives” in 2022, for its 3rd edition of the annual International Women’s month coverage, ArchDaily will focus on the achievements of female architects working specifically on global challenges, and finding innovative approaches to the problems of today. Fitting partially with the theme selected by the United Nations for the 2023 International Women’s Day, centered on Innovation and technology for gender equality, ArchDaily will reflect on what is innovation in the face of global challenges.
Innovation, crucial to natural continuity and advancements, is related to novelty, to the introduction of something new or to a change that will shake the status quo. In some instances, it can be technological, in others, architectural, social, etc. Aiming to celebrate innovation and highlight faces, projects, and initiatives that are contributing to a better world, we are turning to our global audience, looking for your support to share the stories of these women implicated in the built environment, tackling innovatively the urban topics of housing, climate action, public spaces, urban mobility, informal settlements, displacement, preservation, and heritage, social justice, accessible healthcare, education, and safety.
Read on to discover 6 women (and 1 initiative) leading by example and innovating in the fields of social justice, public spaces, housing, informal settlements, accessible education, and healthcare; and fill out the survey at the end of the article.
Focused on social equality, Dolores Hayden, an urban historian, and architect made innovative contributions to the understanding of “the politics of place and the stereotypes of gender and race embedded in American-built environments”, in the United States in the 80s. She was a pioneer in using the built environment to document the history of gender, class, and race. Tackling rapid urbanization, informal settlements, and the housing crisis, Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first woman architect, explored through her designs, the themes of community and belonging, participatory design, local history, and post-colonial culture. Her innovation resided at the intersections of architecture, human rights, decolonization, gender, climate change, and vernacular revival. On the other hand, to encourage inclusive designs in public spaces, HerCity was an innovative digital toolbox that involved women in urban development, by providing the proper methods and tools to urban actors globally, in order to support cities in integrating girls’ participation in their long-term strategies.
Centered on accessible education, Diana Kellogg, moved from high-end residential to nonprofit projects, addressing social change and designing a girls' school in India, where the literacy rate is 36%; while Detroit native Tiffany Brown founded 400 Forward, an innovative initiative that inspires, and mentors the next generation of women designers. Familiarizing young girls with architecture, and pushing forward the presence of African American women in the profession of architecture, 400 Forward provides also scholarships and tuition for study material and licensing exams. Looking at innovation in decolonizing the study of architecture, Mariam Kamara, founder of Niamey, Niger-based firm Atelier Masōmī, created a studio at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), “Designing for the DNA of a Place,” to teach a "groundbreaking process for visualizing architecture in places where you happen to be an outsider", to expose students to the inequities of the architectural canon. Last but not least, working at the intersection of health and cities, Tolullah "Tolu" Oni is a Nigerian urban epidemiologist that shaped an interdisciplinary program on “Research Initiative for Cities Health and Equity” (RICHE) focusing on urban health, identifying opportunities to implement public health policies in fast-growing cities.
Innovation can, in fact, take different shapes, but in most cases, it comes from a certain necessity. As the global challenges of the world become more pronounced, we find ourselves in need of innovative approaches to deal with the problems of our time and drive change.
In the words of David Basulto, ArchDaily's founder, "in this world, there are endless examples of women who are having an impact and we will continue to visualize their work and stories. [...] We also maintain our commitment to highlighting the work of all the underrepresented communities that are part of architecture". Recognizing every single day the female force that shapes the built environment, celebrating their achievements, and increasing visibility, ArchDaily is seeking your help to showcase the women innovating to find solutions to our global issues. These female figures can have diverse professional backgrounds and multidisciplinary approaches. Fill out the survey below and stay tuned to our next coverage.
For more info on Women in Architecture, check the index article, the tags Women in Architecture and Women Architects, the collaboration with Arquitetas Invisíveis, October 2022 Monthly topic: Women in Architecture, Sky-Frame's “Women in Architecture” documentary presented by ArchDaily and find more in this My ArchDaily folder created by the author.
