Women in Architecture

"I am not a female architect, I am an architect”

Odile Decq - French Architect and Urban Planner

For a long time, architectural schools in France were closed to women. The profession of an architect has an artistic and also a technical dimension linked to a network of related trades in the building industry, construction sites... professions that are traditionally seen as “masculine”.

We tend to think that women no longer have gender-related barriers to being an architect. In fact, female students in architecture schools represent 60% of the classes, and we can see more and more female architects in architectural agencies. Less than 10% of women architects are at the head of an architectural studio.  The first female architects to graduate from architectural schools in Europe and the United States graduated at the end of the 19th century, starting in the 1890s. 

On the occasion of International Women's Rights Day, we have chosen to highlight 5 women architects:

Julia Morgan 

Julia Morgan was the first American woman to be admitted to the architecture section of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1898. In her career as an architect, Julia Morgan has completed around 800 buildings. Among other things, she built Mills College in Oakland, California. 

Zaha Hadid 

Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-British urban architect, is the first architect to be awarded the Pritzker Prize for her work. Since then, all the women who have received it have done so as part of a collaborative effort by a mixed team. Zaha Hadid is an important figure in the architectural movement of deconstructivism. Zaha Hadid has completed projects all over the world and is best known for the Guggenheim Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. Zaha Hadid has also designed museums, opera houses and exhibition pavilions. 

Odile Decq 

Odile Decq is a French architect and urban planner. When her colleague died, she went through a period when the industry doubted her ability to carry out projects. Odile Decq gained national and international recognition for the construction of the Banque Populaire de l'Ouest et d'Armorique in Rennes, France. Odile Decq was awarded no less than ten different prizes for this project. She was also selected for the creation of the extension to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, Italy. She is also director of the Ecole Spéciale d'Architecture. 

Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first black woman to pass her licence exam to officially become an architect in the United States. She has worked to incorporate more women of colour into the architectural profession. Norma Merrick Sklarek designed Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport.  

Find equally inspiring women architects on our site.