10 women architects of the first half of the 20th century that you should know
04/10/2021.
The vanguard at the beginning of the S.XX
metalocus, PAULA ARIAS
metalocus, PAULA ARIAS
Wera Meyer-Waldeck (Dresden, Germany, May 1906 - Bonn, Germany, April 1964). She began her studies in 1921 as an educator at the Dresden Women's School, graduating in 1924. Between 1924 and 1927 she studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Dresden. In 1927 she entered the Bauhaus in Dessau. In her beginnings she studied with Marcel Breuer in the carpentry workshop making stools, sunbeds, folding tables... In 1928 she studied in the construction department with Hannes Meyer. In 1929, Wera worked on the design of furniture for the ADGB school in Bernau, near Berlin. In 1930 she interrupted her studies at the Bauhaus due to the death of her father. In 1931, she resumed her studies at school with Ludwig Hilberseimer and Mies van der Rohe. The following year, she finished her studies at the Bauhaus with a thesis on "elementary school and kindergarten of eight grades".
In 1934 she began working in Dessau as a draftsman for the construction of aircraft in the Junkers. From 1937 she will work in places such as the Supreme Construction Management of the Reichsautobahn, the Reichsbahn Construction Management in Berlin and the mining and metallurgical company Darwin-Thzynietz.
In 1939 she began her professional career as an architect, working for the National Railway Construction Authority. Between 1946-1948, she began working as a professor of interior design at the State University of Applied Arts in Dresden.
In 1948 she presented herself as an independent architect in Walldorf (Germany). The following year, she worked for Hans Schwippert in projects such as the interior design of the German Parliament office in Bonn, the interior design of two ministries, the Viktorshöhe guest house of the Federal Government and the Federal Chancellery. Notable Meyer-Waldeck projects include: the reconstruction of a hotel in Koblenz, several secondary schools, four collective housing units (Laubenganghäuser) for refugees from the East, the Catholic Foreign Relations Mission and a student residence in Bonn. In addition, Wera was a member of the Association of German Architects, of the Women's Federation of Germany and was the author of numerous articles in journals. Her last project is a dormitory of students in Bonn, in 1962.
Wera Meyer-Waldeck died of diabetes on April 25, 1964 in Bonn.
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897-2000) was the first female Austrian architect, known primarily for the design of the Frankfurt' Kitchen in 1927.
She was born on January 23, 1897 in Vienna. From 1915 to 1919, she studied as the first woman at the School of Applied Arts Architecture in Vienna with Oskar Strnad and Heinrich Tessenow. This was followed by several assignments for the construction of houses, gardens and kindergartens. In 1926 she was transferred by Ernst May to Frankfurt, where she displayed her famous Frankfurt kitchen in 1927. From 1930 to 1937, she was part of the May group as a specialist in buildings for children in Russia, after which she went into exile in Istanbul. When she entered Austria in 1940 as a member of a resistance movement, she was arrested and imprisoned until the end of the war. In 1945/46, he directed the Department of Institutions for Children of the Sofia Baudirektion. In the following years she received several commissionings in Austria, Cuba and Berlin.
'Every thinking woman must be aware of the delay that domestic methods still have, and she must recognize that they hinder her own development, and, therefore, also that of her family'. (Die Frankfurter Küche, page 16)
With these words, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky presents her Frankfurt kitchen in 1927. Guided by the question of how to improve a woman's work by making suitable housing, she presents the model for our modern and equipped kitchen. Her kitchen would be installed in more than 10,000 apartments. A year earlier, Ernst May invited her to Frankfurt to work in the Construction Department, as a typist. In 1930, she followed a call to Moscow, again together with Ernst May and many other German architects, to plan the construction of new Russian industrial cities. Among other things, the German team was commissioned to build the city of Magnitogorsk. Schütte-Lihotzky herself was employed as an expert in buildings for children. In addition, she is represented in the Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna since 1932 with two houses.
In 1937 she left Russia and spent the next three years in Istanbul, where she became a member of an anti-fascist resistance movement and continued to design buildings for children.
In 1940 she was arrested in Austria and imprisoned until the end of the war. In 1947 she participated in the first CIAM conference in Zurich. Subsequently, she develops other facilities for children, including the famous but never executed modular system, a prefabricated system that can be combined in any configuration, for the city of Vienna. In 1956 she made study trips to China and in 1961 to Cuba.
She published "One million cities in China" in 1958, "Study area in life" in 1970 and her "Memories of the resistance 1938-45" in 1981/82. In 1989 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Graz and received the first prize at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam for her contribution to "allowing the majority of the population to have a better daily life" (Die Frankfurter Küche, page 58). In 1993, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna dedicated a large exhibition to her.
In 1977 she was awarded the Joliot Curie Medal for her achievements in the World Peace Movement, and in 1980 she received the Architecture Prize of the City of Vienna. In 1988 she was offered the Austrian Medal for Science and Art, but she rejected it, as it would have been presented by the then Austrian president, Kurt Waldheim, who had been accused of hiding his Nazi past. Years later, she accepted it.
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky died on January 18, 2000 in Vienna.
Friedl Dicker (Vienna, July 30, 1898-Auschwitz, October 9, 1944). She began her studies in 1914 in photography and printing techniques at the Graphic Arts Research Institute. The following year, she became interested in the textile world entering the Faculty of textiles of the Royal School of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 1916 she entered the private art school of Johannes Itten, who will be one of the protagonists of the future Bauhaus.
Three years later, she entered the Bauhaus school in Weimar where she continued his apprenticeship. There she carried out works of textile design, binding and participated in typography workshops. She designed the costumes and sets for important plays like "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare.
After finishing his studies in 1923, she founded the Werkstätten Bildender Kunst or "Workshops of Visual Arts" in Berlin together with Franz Singer, former partner of the Bauhaus.
In 1926 she returned to her hometown, Vienna, and there she founded a new studio, the Singer & Dicker, together with Franz Singer. Despite not having obtained any degree of architecture, in the new studio they developed building projects, interior design and furniture, with which they won several awards.
In 1931, the Singer & Dicker studio fell apart and they began their solo careers. Friedl Dicker began to practice as an educator in Vienna and joined the anti-fascist movement. In 1934, she was arrested for developing activities related to communism.
After being released. She moved to Prague where Nazism was at its peak, something that would change the course of Friedl's life. She started with her textile works at the Spiegler & Sons factory and she, as a designer, received the award at the Vystava 38 Nachod exhibition.
In 1942, she received an order of deportation and in that same year she was transferred to Terezín, a town in the Czech Republic known for the concentration camp installed during her term during the Second World War and in 1944 she was deported. Finally, Frield died at the age of 46, the Auschwitz concentration camp.