Can you name six female architects

When you view this site, with your permission, we may store some limited information on your computer in the form of a 'cookie'. This allows us to tailor our website to match your interests, your needs and improve your experience. Joseph Giles. Eileen Gray Glass Salon, Bibendum chair is pictured in far-left Irish-born Eileen Gray is considered as one of the most important architects and furniture designers of the 20th Century.

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Register for Access. Join our mailing list. Request Samples. Contact Us. Your connection to a beautiful building. All rights reserved. Cookies on JosephGiles. I just wanted A. When I came to London to work, I thought: "This must be the great land of equality. It was much harder for women to get anywhere in architecture in the 80s, 90s, and the noughties. It's a lot easier now, but if it hadn't been for pressure groups saying: "Hey, let the women in," or shouting, "This isn't quite fair," things would be worse than they are today.

It has been named the most environmentally friendly office building in Scandinavia. Credit: Dorte Mandup. DM: I get pretty provoked when I am referred to as a female architect. We need to start seeing women as fully part of the architecture realm. We can compete with the boys. Let's discuss, why don't we have more women on the jury? Why do we accept there are competitions with only men-owned companies? Do men and women design buildings differently?

DM: No. All people are different but women do not make architecture differently to men. But sometimes we get the assignments that are "suited to women. My first jobs all had to do with children. It was just: "You're the woman that's good with children, right? AB: While women and men might not design buildings differently, they may approach design in a different way. Women have got a great ability to listen -- not all men have that.

A lot of our female clients -- and there are more than ever before, because woman are increasingly in powerful positions -- come to us because they want to engage female architects.

We're more empathetic. DM: I don't fully agree. Just imagine what it would sound like if a male architect was equally praised for his surprising ability to design with real compassion and human insight? To create something so empathetic that one could hardly believe it was made by a man? When addressing the discrepancy between the number of female architects and the kind of attention awarded to female architects, the compensational go-to-solution seems to be these well-meaning lists naming women who, in spite of or due to their gender, are doing well.

Or special exhibitions featuring solely female architects. Or enthusiastic articles and interviews with female architects, and so forth. Because women are considered special, they deserve a special list.

Despite all of the efforts to make female architects feel special, the result is quite the opposite. There is a well-known test in journalism, called the Jew Test, for anyone who is in doubt about whether they are being accidentally discriminatory against a certain group of people, or simply focusing on attributes that are irrelevant.

The trick is to substitute the name of the characteristic in question and replace it with the word Jew. The logic is that, since the second world war, the misuse of the word Jew still triggers a reflex in most people's brain. It immediately sounds wrong. So how about a list of 50 inspirational Jews in architecture and design? Or would you care to visit a special exhibition of Jewish sculptors? And would you be surprised to read an article about nine memorable films by Jewish directors?

Are we not long overdue a mind shift allowing men and women to work — and compete — within the same parameters? There is nothing wrong with competing in the Paralympics — unless of course you are perfectly qualified to compete in the regular Olympics. And despite all of the efforts to make female architects feel special, once a year, with special lists, the result is quite the opposite. Moya was born in Bogota, Colombia and has a Colombian architecture license.

She shares her diverse experience through delivering inspiring keynote speeches and lectures, introducing architectural solutions to support humanitarian efforts for Internally Displaced People IDP , and volunteering on a local level as a guest critic and mentor. In the future, I hope to have an opportunity to work with my own local community on designing public spaces and responding to the issues of affordable housing.

Founder and principal of Sharon Davis Design, Sharon Davis is an award-winning practitioner whose work is driven by her belief in the transformative power of design.