20 Dec Mykonos Ceramics stands out the pioneers of architecture world
This week on the Mykonos Cerámica blog we dedicate a new article to the world of architecture.
We remember 10 women whose careers gave a new meaning to architecture in difficult times for professionals women.
Many of these architects came from disciplines such as interior design, furniture and decoration.
They made collaborations by the hand of great figures of the moment such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe or Ernst May, whose names could sometimes overshadow their work.
And they opened the doors of professional circles for other women to enter this field.
Wikipedia
Elizabeth Wilbraham (1632-1705). England.
This English aristocrat is considered the world’s first female architect.
It is estimated that she could be the author (covered, due to not being able to practice a profession) of some 400 buildings, which include houses, churches and chapels. Among them, Wotton House, an example of English Baroque, or the Weston Park country house in Staffordshire.
Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856-1915). USA.
Blanchard was the first woman to work professionally as an architect in the United States.
In 1881 she opened her own office and built, above all, public and industrial buildings, being one of the first to conceive a concrete structure with a steel frame.
The Lafayette Hotel (1904), in Buffalo, is one of his works that is still preserved.
Eileen Gray (1878-1976). Ireland.
She can be considered a true pioneer of modernism, internationally recognized for her contribution to industrial design.
She began his career in Paris, in interior decoration, but in the 1920s she was fully introduced to architecture.
She managed to act independently without it being necessary for her to belong to any association or group of artists of her time.
She was the creator of the E.1027 house, her own vacation home and an obsession for Le Corbusier, due to Grey’s mastery of a style that the architect considered her own.
Lilly Reich (1885 – 1947) Germany.
Reich began her career in the first decade of the 20th century and ended in the run-up to World War II when political circumstances annulled any hope of continuity for a freelancer in Germany.
In 1927 she partnered with the already renowned architect Mies van der Rohe.
For many, she created some of the most beautiful and highest-quality interior spaces in the history of 20th century architecture, where forms were first subjected to materials, technique and use.
Among her works, the German Pavilion for the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1929 or the Tugendhat House.
Wikipedia
Julia Morgan (1872-1957). USA.
She was the first woman to set foot in the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the first to be licensed to work as an architect in California.
Her initial work is influenced by the Arts & Crafts, although she ended up incorporating references from the Neo-Renaissance, Tudor and Spanish Colonial, among others.
She built around 700 buildings, including the famous Castle of the magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897-2000). Austria.
This Viennese is considered the first Austrian architect. She stood out throughout her career for her innovative architectural approaches; she designed houses, especially social ones, in her country and Bulgaria, and worked in the Housing Secretariat.
Although she denied it, a kitchen made she famous: the Frankfurt kitchen, conceived with a modular system that allowed it to lower costs and adapt it to each home, with metal and tile materials to facilitate cleaning.
archive.curbed.com
Marion Mahony Griffin (1871 – 1961). USA.
She was the first woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the first architect to work with Frank Lloyd Wright.
In 1911 she won, together with his partner and husband Walter Burley Griffin, the contest to project Canberra, the new capital of Australia, managing the idea that it was in contact with nature.
Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992) Brasil.
Wikipedia
Italian by birth, she became Brazilian by adoption (and by contribution).
Collect the best of the Carioca tradition; focusing on the human being and what she calls “poor architecture”.
Her works have modern roots and an increasingly simplified ending, far from European guidelines.
Her Glass House, a residence open to the surrounding vegetation, is a benchmark of Brazilian modernism.
Jane Drew (1911-1996). England.
She specialized in large-scale landscape design and in seeking to improve housing conditions. She also stood out as a writer of technical books that have become a world reference in terms of urban architecture.
She began working in London carrying out large projects, and later associated with Maxwell Fry, her husband.
Its main focus: the development of affordable housing in England or West Africa.
Her great work is the projection, together with her husband and partner, and the support of Le Corbusier, of the new capital of Punjab, Chandigarh.
Matilde Ucelay (1912-2008) Spain.
Wikipedia
Matilde Ucelay, from Madrid, was the first architect in Spain to be recognized with a degree and, for many, the pioneer in opening the doors to the following generations.
She fully practiced her profession, developing more than 120 projects of her own creation for more than four decades. Among them, the Oswald House, the Marichalar House or the Turner and Hispano-Argentina Libraries.
She was recognized in 2004 with the National Architecture Prize.