From Lina Bo Bardi to Elizabeth Diller: how women have reshaped the discipline

In the space of a few decades, the perception and culture of what an architect can be has evolved from the stereotype of “one man at the helm” to a far more complex and diversified range of possibilities: couples, collectives and teams of all kinds. But it is the ever-growing and ever-more influential presence of women that characterizes the discipline in our time.
In the exemplary cases and stories presented and illustrated in this volume, reflecting not only the quality of the architecture but also the great variety of contexts and professional configurations, we find the most important names of the recent past (Zaha Hadid, Cini Boeri, Lina Bo Bardi) and the present (Elizabeth Diller, Kazuyo Sejima, Grafton Architects): women at the head of large firms, who may work alone or who collaborate with other women or a partner, or who are members of collectives.

Text by: Matilde Cassani, Alessandra Spagnoli