One year ago today, an emotional tsunami swept through the architectural community and spilled over, flooding mainstream consciousness.
Such was the cultural force of Dame Zaha Hadid, her sudden passing impacted not just her professional peers, the architectural journalists and critics that had followed her every move, or even those connected to the wider creative industries in which she played a pivotal role. The stunning silence that followed her death caused many more to take pause, reflecting on a fundamental question that went far beyond buildings: What does it mean to be a woman architect, businessperson and innovator in the 21st century?
The issue of gender inequality was one that Zaha never shied away from addressing whenever her prominence was questioned, her work criticized or her ethics challenged. As a woman, the British-Iraqi architect was only too aware that her fight for professional respect was often made harder due to her being a woman, but as a fighter, she took this in her stride and fired back whenever necessary — not just for herself, but for every female architect on the planet.
Via Harper’s Bazaar
“I used to not like being called a ‘woman architect,’” remarked Zaha in an interview with CNN in 2012, after receiving the Architects’ Journal’s inaugural Jane Drew Prize for her outstanding contribution to the status of women in architecture. “I’m an architect, not just a woman architect,” she continued. “Guys used to tap me on the head and say, ‘You are OK for a girl.’ But I see the incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it could be done, so I don’t mind that at all.”
Immediately after Zaha passed away, there was inevitable concern over what felt like a power vacuum for women at the top of the profession. Now that the world’s only female “starchitect” was gone, who could possibly fill the void and take on this vital role of advocacy for women architects? The unavoidable truth is that, despite the number of women entering the profession being higher than previous decades, this is a demographic that continues to face daily battles for equality and respect within the AEC industry as a whole.
Just one month prior to Zaha’s death, the Architectural Review published a survey stating that 67 percent of female architects do not believe the building industry has fully accepted the authority of women in the profession. One in three survey participants said the current system of training in architecture favors men over women. This premise is backed up by some eye-opening statistics: According to Next City, while 43 percent of architecture students are female, just 17 percent of AIA members who are firm principals or partners are women.
Taken exactly 50 years apart: Denise Scott Brown in Las Vegas (left); Jeanne Gang picking up the A+Awards Firm of the Year Award (right)
Twelve months on, and these issues are as pressing as ever. While the fight for gender parity in the workplace is often fought in political arenas, the need for new role models and advocates for women in the profession cannot be understated — and it is on this front that one can draw hope.
In 2016, Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang stepped onto the stage to receive the Firm of the Year award at Architizer’s A+Awards. Gang is a star architect without any of the associated pretension, as proved in her acceptance speech and in countless interviews on her firm’s growing body of landmark projects. Gang is living proof that women need not have aggressive, cutthroat personalities to reach the top — they simply need to possess great design talent, terrific management skills and a quiet insistence that they will not be held back by something as incidental as their gender.
Since Gang’s triumph, prominent women throughout the profession have secured a series of high profile coups. In September, Sharon Johnston was named artistic director of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial alongside partner Mark Lee. Three months later, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects were named in the same role for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. In March, Spanish architect Carme Pigem scooped the 2017 Pritzker Prize together with partners Rafael Aranda and Ramon Vilalta.
These are exciting appointments and wonderful achievements, but the fact that they even need to be noted is a sign that the profession still has some way to go — as evidenced by the American Institute of Architects this past February. There was substantial dismay when the AIA released the list of keynote speakers for its annual conference — a list that did not include a single woman architect. This prompted a letter signed by 50 architects calling for the AIA to do more to address gender equality, with Next City journalist Kelsey E. Thomas putting forward her own excellent suggestions for “four women architects to fix your all-male panel.”
Sure enough, it appears as though the AIA has listened: As well as architects such as Elizabeth Diller and Nora Demeter being added to the rostrum, the Institute made an even more extraordinary announcement just yesterday — it has been revealed that none other than former First Lady Michelle Obama will be a keynote speaker in Orlando next month. Journalists like Thomas will raise an eyebrow and a smile at that dramatic turn of events — it seems that a little pressure can work wonders.
It is important to note, though, that it should not just be left to women to speak out on the issue of gender inequality. Following the global March for Women earlier this year, one particularly prominent male architect — David Adjaye — took the lead in calling out the profession for its continued lack of progress on the issue. Asked by Dezeen whether he thought his sector was at the forefront of gender equality, he replied: “I don’t think we’re leading it at all … I find it exhausting that women are still fighting for gender parity. I find it embarrassing to be really honest; we’re in the 21st century. This is such an old story, we should be way past this. I’m embarrassed, as a male.”
Women continue to be underrepresented and under-recognized in the upper echelons of the profession; graphic via the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
As the head of a major firm, Adjaye is well placed to speak on the subject, having undoubtedly witnessed firsthand — just like Zaha before him — examples of gender inequality and discrimination throughout his career. Nevertheless, his honesty in this interview was met with a wave of controversy that only served to reaffirm his point, and the point of feminists throughout the profession: Only when inequality is completely wiped out will it cease to be an issue worthy of debate on platforms like Dezeen and Architizer.
Despite these battles, the aforementioned female appointments for biennials and beyond show potential for progress. The rise to prominence of several women architects in the public eye should lead to an increase in the number of advocates with the power to be heard: Where Zaha was once a solitary female beacon of publicity for the profession, there are now many women with a platform to drive the conversation on architecture and practice. Globally publicized interviews and speeches by Johnston, Farrell and McNamara will no doubt follow as the biennials approach, and, like Zaha and Denise Scott Brown before them, their words will prove as significant as their architectural work.
Besides these new figureheads, the entire architectural community should be uniting in strategic ways to advocate for female professionals. Progress is already being made on this front — just this week, ArchiteXX hosted the wikiD New York Writing Workshop, where an army of volunteers wrote dozens of new Wikipedia pages on significant women within the built environment. Further to this, our extensive reflection on 52 women whohave changed architecture — both past and present — garnered an incredible reaction from the public, emphasizing the value in highlighting the women already making waves in the profession, despite the challenges.
Via Dezeen
From Gang and Pigem to Johnston, Farrell and McNamara, women looking for role models in the profession need not look far. Meanwhile, lessons can continue to be learned from Zaha herself, through both her words and her projects. While her physical presence will be sorely missed, the original “star” architect will live long in the memory — and serve as inspiration for a whole new generation of women to come.
Top image via Huffington Post