Gender struggles in architecture, colonialism and housing
As part of a study on the work that Portuguese women architects did in Africa during the colonial period, we are organising a meeting on the recognition of women in architectural culture. We have invited Mary McLeod, professor of architecture at Columbia University, to discuss the relationship between gender studies and architecture. The meeting will also include presentations on the history of women architects in Portugal; the difficulties posed by oral history and archival research as a working methodology; experiences in non-Portuguese contexts; and the contribution of some protagonists. The production of housing by these women up until the end of colonisation will be discussed, considering that they found opportunities in Africa that were not available to them in their country of origin.
This meeting is being held as part of a research project funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the title WomArchStruggle - Women Architects in Former Portuguese Colonial Africa: Gender and the Struggle for Professional Recognition (1953-1985) [DOI: 10.54499/2022.01720.PTDC] and developed at ISCTE's Dinâmia'CET research centre.
Mary McLeod
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Columbia University, New York (USA)
Mary McLeod is a professor of architecture at Columbia University, where she teaches architecture history and theory. Her research and publications have focused on the history of the modern movement and on contemporary architecture theory, examining issues concerning the connections between architecture and politics. She is the editor of and contributor to the book Charlotte Perriand: An Art of Living, as well as the co-editor of Architecture, Criticism, Ideology and the website Pioneering Women of American Architecture (with Victoria Rosner). Her essays have appeared in numerous journals such as AA Files, Journal of Architecture, Assemblage, JSAH, Casabella, and Opposition and in books such as Modern Architecture and the Lifeworld, Architecture School, Modern Women, Feminism and Architecture, Building Systems, Architectural Theory since 1968, and Complexity and Contradiction at Fifty. She served for six years on the Scientific Committee advising on the renovation of Eileen Gray’s villa E-1027 in Roquebrune.
13 Jan 16H30-18H00
Keynote lecture
How Did Women Change Modern Architecture? Furniture, Kitchens, Housing
This talk examines the influence that women designers had on European modern architecture between the World Wars, focusing on three areas or scales of design: furniture, kitchens, and housing. It proposes that women designers, despite their small numbers, had a disproportionate influence on modern architecture and that they brought a new array of interests and skills to the field, whether from personal experience, from their previous training in the decorative or fine arts, or from their work in charity or reform movements. The focus on domesticity and housing in modern architecture offered women new opportunities for participation in the profession, and they in turn helped shape these concerns, often with great creativity and invention.
Programme
[The Seminar will be held in English]
9H30-10H00 | WELCOME
Maria Assunção Gato
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
Ana Vaz Milheiro
FAUL / DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
Leonor Matos Silva
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
10H00-10H30 | COMMUNICATION
HOW TO DEAL WITH WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE?
NOTES ON RECENT PORTUGUESE HISTORIOGRAPHY
Patrícia Santos Pedrosa
FE-UBI; CIEG-ULisboa
Lia Gil Antunes
CIEG-ULisboa
Academic research on women architects in Portugal began over a decade and a half ago. We propose a dialogue with some of the recent moments of this recent historiography, both in the production of scientific knowledge and its dissemination. Dealing with the diversity of paths women took in architecture in Portugal and their oblivion from the official architectural narrative while endeavouring to avoid reproducing reductive historiographical practices has been challenging. Critical concepts and methodologies of feminist historiography genealogy are fundamental to guaranteeing that we can draw a new history with new significance. The questioning and broadening of the canon as a matrix for validating what is historiographically recognisable, and our own experiences, leads us to unavoidable questions. How do we deal with the plurality of geographies and generations, paths and practices? How do we deal with the lack of archives or documents? How can oral history be reinstated as an inevitable method? In short, how do we deal with the non-acceptance of feminist approaches in architecture culture and the non-recognition that women's agencies have a right to exist in the profession's history, even today?
10H30-11H00 | Coffee break
11H00-12H00 | WomArchSruggle PROJECT RESEARCH + Q&A
"TO RESEARCH ON WOMEN ARCHITECTS WORKING IN FORMER PORTUGUESE AFRICA: A GENDER STRUGGLE"
Leonor Matos Silva,
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
"MILANKA LIMA GOMES: A JOURNEY FROM YUGOSLAVIA TO GUINEA-BISSAU"
Francesca Vita
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
12H00-13H30 | Lunch break
13H30-14H15 | WomArchSruggle PROJECT RESEARCH + Q&A
"FIRST WOMEN GRADUATE IN ANGOLA:
ARCHITECTURE COURSE IN AGOSTINHO NETO UNIVERSITY"
Inês Lima Rodrigues
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
Maria Alice Correia
IPGUL; Lusíada University, Luanda
SCREENING:
An Interview to Filomena Espírito Santo by Inês Lima Rodrigues
Inês Lima Rodrigues
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
14H15-14H45 | IN CONVERSATION WITH
“TO INTERVIEW DENISE SCOTT BROWN”
Jorge Figueira
Darq - FCTUC/CES, Coimbra
Mónica Pacheco
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
14H45-15H15 | Coffee break
15H15-16H00 | WomArchSruggle PROJECT RESEARCH + Q&A
"GENDER STRUGGLES IN ARCHITECTURE, COLONIALISM AND HOUSING"
Ana Vaz Milheiro
DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Lisbon
16H00-16H30 | Coffee break
16H30-18H00 | KEYNOTE LECTURE + Q&A
"HOW DID WOMEN CHANGE MODERN ARCHITECTURE? FURNITURE, KITCHENS, HOUSING"
Mary McLeod
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Columbia University, New York (USA)
Maria Emília Caria. Bissau, Photographic Documentation. (1966), © AHU
Organizing Committee
Ana Vaz Milheiro
Beatriz Serrazina
Francesca Vita
Leonor Matos Silva
Patrícia Noomahomed
CCB, Centro Cultural de Belém