Power Games

I just bought tickets to go to this FEMALE POWER IN ARCHITECTURE  talk at the RIBA in London on 24th April.  It's at 6.30pm so I'll probably get the16.45 train from Cambridge Station.  Drop me an email if you are going too and I'll meet you at the station.
(You don't have to be a member of the RIBA to book btw.)

Panelists include:

• Alison Brooks, Alison Brooks Architects
• Deborah Saunt, DSDHA
• Kathryn Firth, Chief of Design, Olympic Park Legacy Company
• Liza Fior, muf architecture/ art
• Anna Gagliano, Aedas.

This event is dedicated to Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first African American woman in America to become a licensed architect.

 

I find it interesting that they should choose the word "power" in the context of this talk.  It ties in with something they were writing about in ArchDaily yesterday on the decision to award Zaha Hadid with the Jane Drew Prize for women in architecture.  Vanessa Quirk questions whether such an "extraordinary exception" as Hadid, who has been able to achieve success on her own terms, and who approaches architecture as High Art, rather than a social force for good, is the best choice for this award.  She sees the award as seeking to challenge our perception of the state of women in architecture today in the spirit of Jane Drew and  I agree with her.  I only know Hadid by her reputation but that is a reputation of a gutsy, no nonsense woman who believes in herself and in getting her way.  A brief look at the comments section show the usual panic about pigeon-holing women characteristics and why shouldn't Hadid get a prize for what she's done which I think is just missing the point.  Hadid is a powerful woman.  Many of us aren't.  The question is: do we have to become 'powerful' to be recognised as good architects?  I don't think so, and neither, I think, does Vanessa Quirk.