Feminists Writing Architecture History
This symposium brings together architects and researchers Florencia Fernandez Cardoso, Lucia Perez Moreno and Sol Perez Martinez to reflect on historiography and architecture writing through a feminist lens. Moderated by CIVA researcher in residence Apolline Vranken, the guest speakers will discuss the question of gender in architecture and historiography, while also considering the essential steps to foster research on women and minorities.
A feminist perspective to architectural historiography offers insights that uncover and critique the ways in which gender bias shapes the architectural environment, discourses and professional practices. It also highlights the contributions of women architects and theorists who have been marginalized or overlooked in traditional narratives of architectural history. By reclaiming and amplifying these voices, writing about architecture from a feminist perspective offers nuanced critiques and transformative visions that challenge the status quo and push the field towards more inclusivity and social justice.
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Florencia Fernandez Cardoso is an architect. She graduated in 2012 with a Master in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta, at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Currently she is preparing a PhD in the same faculty as a joint-degree with KU Leuven and ULB, under the supervision of Hilde Heynen (KUL) and Christine Schaut (ULB). She is researcher at Hortence (Architectural History, Theory and Critique) and Sasha (Architecture and Social Sciences), two laboratories that are part of the research centre CLARA. Florencia Fernandez Cardoso is a member of the editorial committee of the annual scientific journal Clara: Architecture/Recherche.
Lucía C. Pérez-Moreno is a Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Zaragoza in Spain and has been Visiting Professor at KU Leuven for the last two years. She holds a PhD in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (2013), a MsAAD from Columbia University (New York, 2008), and postgraduate studies from Aalto University (Helsinki, 2004). She is a licensed architect and urban planner. Her area of research focuses on architecture and feminist theory. She has been the PI of the MuWo project (Women in Spanish PostModern Architecture Culture, 1965-2000) and coordinator of the #ArquitectasenelMapa platform [Women Architects on the Map], a digital open interactive map that compiles buildings designed by Women Architects. She has been awarded for her research with the "Celia Amorós'' prize in 2021, nominated for the International Architecture Critics Awards in 2017 by the CICA (International Committee of Architectural Critics), and awarded at the Spanish Biennials of Architecture and Urbanism (2016, 2018, 2021). In 2022, the Spanish Government included her in its 'Women and Science Unit' as one of Spain's most innovative Women researchers.
Sol Pérez-Martínez is an architect, researcher and educator. After receiving her architecture and master degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, she ran an architectural practice that developed projects for private clients and the Chilean government. Their last public building in 2014 was a school in the South of Chile, which inspired her research about architecture, education and public engagement. Since then, Pérez-Martínez has collaborated with teachers, artists, architects and community groups in public history projects, curating educational programs, conferences and exhibitions to widen the public’s involvement in the built environment. Sol holds a PhD in Architecture & Education from The Bartlett and the Institute of Education at UCL, as well as a Master in Architectural History from the same university. Currently, she is postdoctoral fellow at the Group Hultzsch (gta-ETH Zurich) in the project ‘Women Writing Architecture’. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the experiences of Latin American women writing about architecture and the built environment.
