Let's celebrate Women's Day by dedicating this article to 7 unforgettable architects and women.
Signe Hornborg
She was officially the first European woman to graduate in architecture. It was 1890 and, thanks to a special permit, she was granted a degree from the Helsinki Polytechnic, despite the fact that women could not be admitted to studies.
Zaha Hadid
She was the first architect to obtain the prestigious Pritzeker Prize in 2004. Her fame is undoubtedly due to her being one of the leading exponents of the deconstructivist current. In addition to interior architecture, she has been involved in product design and major works, including the City Life residential project and the Hadid Tower in Milan, the Beijing airport, the MAXXI museum in Rome and many others.
Rosa Sheng
Among the contemporary architects who are most concerned with diversity, inclusion and equity. In 2013 she founded Equity by Design, an association that works for concrete social improvement in the world of design and architecture.
Gae Aulenti
She was among the most prominent protagonists in the history of Italian European architecture. She collaborated with Olivetti, and renovated some of the most famous buildings, such as the Orsay Museum and Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Her ability to recover the cultural values of the historical and environmental heritage was unprecedented. In 2012, to celebrate Gae Aulenti, the new square located in the Unicredit Tower complex in Milan was named after her.
Norma Marrick Sklarek
She was the first African-American woman to become an architect (1954). Nicknamed the “Rosa Parks of Architecture”, she was the voice of women affected by gender discrimination. She has won numerous awards, and her main works include the US Embassy in Tokyo and Terminal 1 at Los Angeles Airport.
Ada Louise Huxtable
She was the first writer and critic of architecture. She was the mother of urban design and architecture journalism in the United States, bringing experts and non-experts closer to the subject. In 1970 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Critics, for her ability to make the dialogue on architecture accessible to all.
Charlotte Perriand
French architect and designer indicated among the founders of contemporary design. She followed many projects with Le Corbusier and her contribution was essential in interior architecture. She was an avant-garde woman who reinterpreted reality in a rationalist and innovative key.
