Product Description

The objective of this book is to banish the notion of architecture being a male–dominated field by showcasing the work of a wide variety of world–class women architects, demonstrating the role women are playing in contemporary architecture.
∗ First book of its kind to survey the role of women in architecture.
∗ Features a wide international selection of world–class contemporary women architects.
∗ Beautifully illustrated throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1523784 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-25
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 2.91 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 184 pages

From the Inside Flap
The gender issues surrounding architecture are extroardinarily complex and, frequently, highly emotionally charged. Even the title of this book generated controversy: The original title, The Female Architect, was rejected because it highlighted the fact that the architects whose work is featured here are women, when most want to be considered just as architects. All want their work to be read on its own merits.

Architecture grows and develops according to the challenges it faces. Taking up the challenge of refuting the gender divide and welcoming intelligent input, from whatever source, will benefit a profession which, by definition, is serving the people for whom it works and therefore needs to operate within a collaborative framework, one offering equal opportunities according to talent rather than gender.

This book celebrates thirty–three extraordinarily talented contemporary architects, architects whose work is representative of the rich variety of architectural styles, and wide range of intellectual and social concerns, to be found among today′s practicing women architects. The lives and work of every one of them is of pivotal importance, both because of the intrinsic merit of the work and because the architects themselves are powerful role models, whose influence will be felt for generations to come.
– From the Introduction by Maggie Toy

This book has the urgency of alerting people to the great contributions made by women architects to contemporary architecture, architects whose exceptional vision and design expertise have provided landmark expressions of modern culture. Underlying this celebration of their achievements is the ongoing struggle of these women to achieve professional parity with men in a field long dominated by males. At this time in history, it is important to show solidarity with women architects, in order to advance their progression to professional equality. When women architects no longer have to remind us that they do not want to be considered one of the best "female architects" but simply one of the best architects, when unqualified recognition is given where recognition is due, then things will be in the right place.

Looking optimistically toward that future, we can place an exciting dual trust in the parallel revolutions that are occurring in our times, where more women are taking strong creative leadership roles in architecture and at the same time avant–garde design is expanding to new horizons. When they succeed and unite, the impact is awesome. We are transformed both individually and globally into a totally new, magnificent reality.
– From the Preface by Peter Pran, AIA, MNAL

From the Back Cover
This book has the urgency of alerting people to the great contributions made by women architects to contemporary architecture, architects whose exceptional vision and design expertise have provided landmark expressions of modern culture. Underlying this celebration of their achievements is the ongoing struggle of these women to achieve professional parity with men in a field long dominated by males. At this time in history, it is important to show solidarity with women architects, in order to advance their progression to professional equality. When women architects no longer have to remind us that they do not only want to be considered one of the best "female architects" but simply one of the best architects, when unqualified recognition is given where recognition is due, then things will be in the right place.

Looking optimistically toward that future, we can place an exciting dual trust in the parallel revolutions that are occurring in our times, where more women are taking strong creative leadership roles in architecture and at the same time avant-garde design is expanding to new horizons. When they succeed and unite, the impact is awesome. We are transformed both individually and globally into a new, magnificent reality. - From the Preface by Peter Pran, AIA, MNAL

Excerpted from The Architect by Maggie Toy. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Introduction

The gender issues surrounding architecture are extraordinarily complex and, frequently, highly emotionally charged. Even the title of this book generated controversy: The original title, The Female Architect, was rejected because it highlighted the fact that the architects whose work is featured here are women, when most want to be considered just as architects. All want their work to be read on its own merits.

Architecture grows and develops according to the challenges it faces. Taking up the challenge of refuting the gender divide and welcoming intelligent input, from whatever source, will benefit a profession that, by definitions is serving the people for whom it profession works and therefore needs to operate within a collaborative same framework, one offering equal opportunities according to talent rather than gender. In the second year of the new millennium, such is not the case.

Statistics from the UK indicate that in the years 1909 and 1989, the percentage of architects in Britain who were women was the architect same - a shocking 9 percent! Since 1996, there has been a fractional improvement (estimates range from 10 to 11 percent), the number is still appallingly low, especially when compared with the percentage of women doctors (50 percent) and solicitors (30 percent). If the number of women architects continues to grow at the present rate, their representation in the profession might just achieve parity by the year 3000.

Another dismal fact is that the number of women entering schools of architecture is inversely related to the number of women who go on to practice architecture. Across the UK, on average, 32 percent of the students entering architecture schools are women; in London, the figure is closer to 50 percent. How do we reconcile these numbers with the low number of women who are practicing in the field? The issue is an international one. In the United States, from 40 to 50 percent of students working toward their master's degree in architecture are female, but only 10 percent of licensed architects in firms are women.

Although the statistics are far from encouraging, efforts are being made to assess the situation and determine what might be done about it. In the UK, construction industry contractors are required to put 5 percent of their profits toward further research into the progress of the industry. The Construction Industry Training Board, which is mandated to ensure that some of these monies go into research that will benefit the future of the industry, has established the Construction Industry Best Practice Programme, which investigates methods for improving working conditions within the industry. Under the previously stated assumption that breaking down gender distinctions will benefit the industry as a whole, it is to be hoped that programs addressing these issues will be developed. However, many observers, including architect Sally Kirk Walker, who works in York, England, feel that neither the construction industry nor established architectural organizations are doing enough. She ! notes that WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) buses her have been visiting UK schools for almost twenty years, encouraging girls to follow career paths in science and engineering, yet the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has not spearheaded a similar drive, nor have any of the nationally based construction groups.

Individually, of course, RIBA members have taken action. Annette Fischer, who has been a president of the RIBA Council in London as well as running her own practices, has championed the cause of both women and minority architects. She has made a significant contribution toward smashing the "glass ceiling" frequently hanging over these groups. Fischer believes that the more people like herself become involved in mainstream architecture, the less likely people will be to accept the stereotype of the successful architect as a white male superstar. The more we see the female architect as a powerful influence, the more young women will be encouraged to join the profession and will be able to stay there despite the pressures. At the time, the fact that more and more developer clients are nonwhite females will foster broad-based input from community groups of all types.

It is illuminating (albeit a bit unsettling) to look at cinema's treatment of architects. For decades, the prototypical architect was The Fountainhead's Howard Roark, portrayed on film by Gary Cooper in 1949. Roark, very loosely modeled after Frank Lloyd Wright, was a powerful, brilliant male, an architect who dynamited his work rather than see his ideas compromised. Paul Newman's character in The Towering Inferno and Richard Gere's in Intersection are cut out of the same cloth, and Woody Harrelson's architect in Indecent Proposal is given to quoting one of this century's male architectural icons, Louis Kahn. There are some exceptions to the cinematic rule that architects are powerful, passionate, obsessive, arrogant - and ultimately successful - white males, including Wesley Snipes in Jungle Fever, Brian Dennehy in The Belly of an Architect, Kimberly Williams in Father of the Bride II, and Michelle Pfeiffer in One Fine Day. But Williams and Pfeiffer, and Sharon Stone, Richard! Gere's luxury-loving architect-wife in Intersection, are hardly role models for women considering architecture as a profession.

Away from the movies, in the real world, women are just as likely as men to have the five key skills that today's architect needs:

* The ability to listen to and understand the needs of the client * The ability to work with a large number of people, with different skills, at any given time * The ability to present an authoritative and confident approach * The ability to negotiate with planners, site workers, and so on * Design competence

What of the idea that women are not as good as men at projecting an image of power a la Howard Roark? Perhaps women in general are not quite so likely as men to play the hero, but this is not because women lack the qualities that would make them superb superstars, but rather that this model often does not fit with the ways in which women operate...