In our sixth edition we want to pay tribute to the effort of studios exclusively led by female architects so we selected, as in previous editions, ten important architecture firms to continue with the series, in its sixth edition.
These are this year's studios led by hard-working and strong women. - Ellen van Loon. OMA - Sheila O'Donnell. O'Donnell + Tuomey. - Xu Tiantian. DNA - Design And Architecture. - Lilly Reich. - María Langarita. Langarita-Navarro. - Frida Escobedo. Frida Escobedo. - Anne Tyng. - Belinda Tato. ecosistema urbano. - Blanca Lleó. Blanca Lleó. - Tatiana Bilbao. Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO.
- Ellen van Loon OMA
Ellen van Loon (b. Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1963). She studied architecture at the Technische Universiteit in Delft. A year after graduating from university, he started working at the firm Foster and Partners where he participated in the transformation of the Reichstag, the New German Parliament in Berlin.
Subsequently, she became one of the main partners of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), leading association of architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. Among its main projects are the ''Casa da Música'' in Oporto, the Congress Center of Córdoba and the Mercati Generali in Rome.
In its architecture we find a sensitive talent for design and a keen business acumen together with an understanding of the technical and operational aspects. In addition, we find a concern for the study of the materiality of the outer and inner envelopes. The philosophy of its architecture is based on creating conceptually strong buildings with a great sensitivity in the details.
"I have never made a distinction between men and women architects. Some architects who inspire me are men and others are women. At OMA, I have to say that the buildings I designed with a mixed team always seem to be better. The architects are very good at the rational while the architects can add "softness" to the design and dual interpretations; more layers, so to speak, at all scales of architecture. ''
- Sheila O'Donnell O'Donnell + Tuomey
Sheila O'Donnell (b. Dublin, Ireland, 1953). She founded the O'Donnell + Tuomey studio together with John Tuomey in 1988. She graduated from University College Dublin in 1976, when he moved to London. In 1980 she received a master's degree in Environmental Design from the Royal College of Art London. She worked for James Stirling, Colquhoun + Miller and Spence and Webster before returning to Dublin.
In the early 1980s, she created the Blue Studio Architecture Gallery, which exhibited and published the work of European rationalists, as well as his own design proposals for the regeneration and repopulation of the Dublin Docklands. In 1991, now known as Group 91, they won the contest for the urban regeneration of Temple Bar in the center of Dublin. This cultural district was completed in 1996 and includes two O'Nonnell + Tuomey buildings.
His professional work has continued to develop the spirit of architectural, social and cultural research that characterized his exploratory activities in the early eighties. She has maintained a participation in the world of architecture in London through teaching, external examination, exhibition of works, conferences and as a member of the RIBA Awards group. In recent years, O'Donnell + Tuomey was commissioned to do work in London, build the Photographers Gallery and the LSE Student Center and is now working on a new museum for V & A and a theater and dance academy for Sadler's Wells .
She has been professor of architectural design at UCD since 1981 and teacher since 2016. She has taught and taught at architecture schools in Europe, Japan and the USA. UU., Including Princeton, Michigan, Buffalo, Yale, Columbia, Syracuse and Cooper Union.
In the early 1980s, she created the Blue Studio Architecture Gallery, which exhibited and published the work of European rationalists, as well as his own design proposals for the regeneration and repopulation of the Dublin Docklands. In 1991, now known as Group 91, they won the contest for the urban regeneration of Temple Bar in the center of Dublin. This cultural district was completed in 1996 and includes two O'Nonnell + Tuomey buildings.
His professional work has continued to develop the spirit of architectural, social and cultural research that characterized his exploratory activities in the early eighties. She has maintained a participation in the world of architecture in London through teaching, external examination, exhibition of works, conferences and as a member of the RIBA Awards group. In recent years, O'Donnell + Tuomey was commissioned to do work in London, build the Photographers Gallery and the LSE Student Center and is now working on a new museum for V & A and a theater and dance academy for Sadler's Wells .
She has been professor of architectural design at UCD since 1981 and teacher since 2016. She has taught and taught at architecture schools in Europe, Japan and the USA. UU., Including Princeton, Michigan, Buffalo, Yale, Columbia, Syracuse and Cooper Union.
- Xu Tiantian DNA - Design And Architecture
Xu Tiantian (b. Beijing, China, 1975) is a Chinese architect, founder of the DnA_Design and Architecture studio in 2004 in Beijng. An interdisciplinary study that addresses our contemporary life environment, both physical and social, from small to large scales.
She studied architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the degree of Master of Architecture in Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, later working in different studios in the United States of America and the Netherlands. According to her, her architecture resides in function and geometry. In several interviews she confirms the Chinese reality, which does not consider a paradise for architecture but an opportunity to try to project and build. She develops his architecture in public projects and private clients, interested in avant-garde processes.
One of his first big projects is the Museum of Art in Songzhuang (2005-2006), with the purpose of giving relevance to what he exhibits and not to himself.
In 2005, the project for the Ordos Art Museum began, which was built between 2006 and 2007. It is a dune that enhances the profile of the lake to which it is dumped, a single space that snakes and knots with light inputs that they contract and expand. Ordos is a Mongolian desert city projected for 1,000,000 inhabitants where today there are no more than 20,000 people living, being one of the largest ghost cities in the world.
- Lilly Reich
Lilly Reich (b. Berlin, Germany, 16 June 1885 - d. Berlin, Germany, 14 December 1947). In 1908, she started working in the Viennese workshop of Josef Hoffmann. In 1920, she became the first female member of its board of directors. She directed her own studio of interior design, decorative art and fashion in Berlin until 1924. Until 1926, she directed a studio for the design and fashion of exhibitions in Frankfurt am Main and worked in the Frankfurt trade fair office as an exhibition designer.
Reich met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1926 and collaborated with him in the design of an apartment and other projects for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition held in Stuttgart in 1928. In 1927, she moved to her own studio and apartment in Berlin. In mid-1928, Mies van der Rohe and Reich were named artistic directors of the German section of the 1929 World Exposition in Barcelona, probably due to their successful collaboration at the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart.
In 1932, Lilly Reich played an important role in the Bauhaus in Dessau and Berlin. In January 1932, the third director of the Bauhaus, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, appointed her director of the construction / finishing department and the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus Dessau. She also continued to serve in this position at the Bauhaus Berlin, where she worked until December 1932.
In 1937, Reich and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were commissioned to design the German Reich exhibition for the German textile and clothing industry in Berlin. Subsequently, this was shown in the textile section of the German Pavilion at the 1937 World Exposition in Paris. In 1939, she traveled to Chicago and visited Mies van der Rohe there. After her return to Germany, Reich was recruited to the military engineering group Organization Todt (OT). After the war (1945/46), she taught interior design and construction theory at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Reich directed an architecture, design, textiles and fashion studio in Berlin until her death.
- María Langarita Langarita-Navarro
María Langarita (b. Zaragoza, Spain, 1979), is an architect of Spanish origin with a degree from the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra. Referent of the new generation of Spanish architects thanks to its prolific and innovative work. She is currently a professor of projects at the School of Architecture of Madrid.
In 2005 together with Víctor Navarro, they formed the architecture office Langarita-Navarro. The study emerged in the new economic situation of Spain plunged into a socio-economic crisis, so that the new generations of architects have had to face working conditions installed in a precarious economic and material means. María herself defines her work as an architecture "very involved in innovation processes, fresh, contemporary and fun, where each project is an opportunity to investigate and explore unconventional limits."
His key work, the Red Bull Academy in Nave 15 of Matadero Madrid, marked the international launch in 2012 of the study created. "It was an ephemeral construction, but very exciting and intense.We built a music academy sponsored by Red Bull in just two months, and this project allowed us to apply many of the innovative designs and ideas we had created in the studio." It was an incredible experience and enriching. "
Then, other important assignments were closed, such as Serrería Belga, in Madrid and social housing in Barcelona.
In 2005 together with Víctor Navarro, they formed the architecture office Langarita-Navarro. The study emerged in the new economic situation of Spain plunged into a socio-economic crisis, so that the new generations of architects have had to face working conditions installed in a precarious economic and material means. María herself defines her work as an architecture "very involved in innovation processes, fresh, contemporary and fun, where each project is an opportunity to investigate and explore unconventional limits."
His key work, the Red Bull Academy in Nave 15 of Matadero Madrid, marked the international launch in 2012 of the study created. "It was an ephemeral construction, but very exciting and intense.We built a music academy sponsored by Red Bull in just two months, and this project allowed us to apply many of the innovative designs and ideas we had created in the studio." It was an incredible experience and enriching. "
Then, other important assignments were closed, such as Serrería Belga, in Madrid and social housing in Barcelona.
- Frida Escobedo Frida Escobedo
Frida Escobedo (b. Mexico City, Mexico, 1979). She graduated as an architect and urban planner at the Universidad Iberoamericana. She completed a master's degree in Art, Design and Public Domain at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.
In 2003, together with Alejandro Alarcón, she founded the Perro Rojo studio. One of his most outstanding works is the `` Black House '', designed for a single person with a desire to live surrounded by nature. The small house is supported by four columns and can be seen in the distance when going down the road, on the outskirts of Cuernavaca.
As of 2006, she works independently ranging from minimal housing to pavilions of museums and facilities. Frida in her works enhances the purity of materials, explosion of color, textures, diaphanous expression of space, whose purpose is to exalt modernity. Its architecture also stands out for giving great importance to shapes, lines and reflections. A clear example would be the Hotel Boca Chica in Acapulco.
Since 2007, she is a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana.
In 2003, together with Alejandro Alarcón, she founded the Perro Rojo studio. One of his most outstanding works is the `` Black House '', designed for a single person with a desire to live surrounded by nature. The small house is supported by four columns and can be seen in the distance when going down the road, on the outskirts of Cuernavaca.
As of 2006, she works independently ranging from minimal housing to pavilions of museums and facilities. Frida in her works enhances the purity of materials, explosion of color, textures, diaphanous expression of space, whose purpose is to exalt modernity. Its architecture also stands out for giving great importance to shapes, lines and reflections. A clear example would be the Hotel Boca Chica in Acapulco.
Since 2007, she is a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana.
- Anne Tyng
Anne Tyng (b. Jiangxi, People's Republic of China, 14 July 1920 - d, Greenbrae, California, United States, 27 December 2011), American architect who received her bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Radcliffe University in 1942. Later, she studied at the School of Architecture at Harvard University, obtaining in 1944 the degree of Master of Architecture, being one of the first women in achieving it. Tyng was the only woman who in 1949 presented the exam to obtain the license to practice the profession, having problems during the same with the examiners when refusing to apply the exam.
In 1945 she started working in the studio of Louis Kahn and Oscar Stonorov, working with urban and housing projects. In 1947, Kahn was in a separate study of Stonorov in which Anne joined.
In 1965 she was the first woman to receive a grant from the Graham Foundation that was destined to study the subject of geometric patterns: Anatomy of Form: The Divine Proportion in the Platonic Solids.
In 1989, Tyng published the essay, "From Musa to Heroin, Towards a Visible Creative Identity," which was a study of the development of the creative role of women in architecture. In it, she writes: "The passage from muse to heroin is achieved by very few.Most women who study architecture marry architects.In a short time the woman is behind the man, the architect in partnership with her husband is usually little visible next to the (mostly a little behind him) the hero. " He also mentions "The biggest obstacle for an architect today is the psychological development necessary to unlock her creative potential."
Tyng's influence on the work of Louis Kahn was finally recognized when the Institute of Contemporary Art of Philadelphia held a retrospective exhibition of his work in 2010.
- Belinda Tato ecosistema urbano
Belinda Tato (b. Madrid, Spain, 1971). Co-founder of the Madrid Ecosistema Urbano studio and a Harvard professor. In 2000 she created his own studio together with José Luis Vallejo, which can be defined as an urban social design by which they collect the design of environments, spaces, dynamics and tools to improve the self-organization of citizens, social interaction within communities and its relationship with the environment. Since then, the studio has received more than 30 awards in national and international architectural design competitions and over the last four years, its work has been covered by more than 100 media from 30 countries and its projects have been exhibited in multiple galleries, museums and institutions.
She studied architecture at the School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Later, she continued his studies at the school of architecture and urban planning "The Bartlett School" of the University College of London.
Belinda believes that the design of cities must take into account the quality of life of its citizens. Nicknamed "the inventor of the trees" since one of her projects resembled huge plants in order to create conditions that make cities more human and inclusive.
She herself points out that "there is a huge gap between academic and professional life, and although the schools are full of highly talented architects, the work reality does not reflect it. In this profession more than in others, the gender issue emerges As a handicap, this work requires numerous personal sacrifices and, sometimes, it is difficult to manage without enough family and social support. "
- Blanca Lleó Blanca Lleó
Blanca Lleó (b. Madrid, Spain, 1959). Spanish architect with a degree in the School of Architecture of Madrid.
In 1985, she founded his own architecture studio thanks, in part, to all the prizes won. One of his first projects, together with Jesús San Vicente and Pedro Urzaizm, was the Bibliobus. This project is about a library bus whose purpose is to bring reading to towns where there is no library. Blanca's project would include both the bus design and the campaign.
In 2019, she was elected Academician of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain in the section 9th Architecture and Fine Arts, and in 2018, at the proposal of the Superior Council of the Associations of Architects of Spain, she received the NAN honorific award for her professional career.
The best known works of the Madrid architect are her two residential proposals together with the MVRDV studio in the Sanchinarro neighborhood of Madrid: the Mirador Building and the Celosía Building. Blanca reflects on the residential use of architecture as we can also see in her thesis La casa, dream of living in the modern project, an unfinished project (1996).
Blanca Lleó combines teaching with professional activity. Professor of Architectural Projects since 2012 and professor since 1990 at the School of Architecture of the Univ. Politécnica de Madrid. She is one of only two professors of the School of Architecture of Madrid, where she has her own teaching unit that allows her "independence in the way of teaching".
"We must leave space for young people, I had many opportunities: to build a prison, to create buildings ... Now is the time" - Blanca Lleó
- Tatiana Bilbao Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO
Tatiana Bilbao (b. Mexico City, Mexico, 1972), She studied architecture and urbanism at the Universidad Iberoamericana in 1996. In 1998 she won an honorable mention for his career and an appreciation for the best thesis of the year. She is a consultant for urban projects in the Secretariat of Urban Development and Housing of Mexico City from 1998 to 1999.
In 1999, together with architect Fernando Romero, she founded the company Laboratorio de la Ciudad de México (LCM), a study characterized by generating ideas to promote knowledge of contemporary culture. Later, in 2004 she founded Tatiana Bilbao S.C, whose first project was the Exhibition Hall in Jinhua.
Tatiana has a clear objective: "... that architecture is once again architecture; that architecture is again useful to people and their activities, leaving aside the interests of capital. "This explains why each of his works is different from one another. Another of its objectives is to do everything with simple and pure materials. Clarifies that the material "... is the one that generates the structure, the one that generates the aesthetic definition of the space, the one that generates the isolation part and does not add anything to the material."
For Tatiana, the subject of being a woman is a subject that at first caused her even anger, since she never thought of herself as different. "They invite me to all the parties, to all the conferences and everywhere, because they need to have a gender equity. There are many men and there are very few women and that is why I am in all the garlic. "
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