Because there are far more men than women in the field of architecture, women architects have had to work hard to gain equal opportunities. Women architects have only recently started to receive acknowledgment and recognition for their contributions to the built world.
These women architects tenacity, resilience, and determination have paved the path for upcoming generations of women architects. By narrating their tales and appreciating their contributions and influence, we pay tribute to them. In a field dominated by men, women have been demonstrating their love and skill for design and architecture for the past 150 years; the efforts of some of these women architects have influenced the course of architectural history.
It is paradoxical that gender discrimination is still a problem in the twenty-first century and that women architects can still find a difficult career path in architecture. Nonetheless, women are working in the field of architecture who are constantly upending the boys’ club mentality and have had a significant influence on modern design.
Women have historically faced obstacles to entry and success in the typically male-dominated field of architecture. However, during the last few decades, an increasing number of women architects have overcome these obstacles and risen to prominence in the industry. Today’s architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector is greatly benefiting from the presence of numerous well-known and gifted women architects.
Table of Contents
Top 23 Famous Women Architects in the World
These women architects have had a significant influence on the field of architecture, from early 20th-century pioneers to modern trailblazers, and they will continue to motivate upcoming generations of women architects.
1. Jeanne Gang, Aqua Tower
Studio Gang is an architecture and urban design firm led by Jeanne Gang. Because she views her work as a tool for bringing about change, her architectural approach is centered on creating connections between people and the built environment.
This is evident in her Polis station design, which combines police stations with community recreation centers to improve the relationship between the public and law enforcement. The Aqua Tower in Chicago, which gives the city’s skyline a distinctive and dynamic presence, is one of this firm’s most notable creations.
The gang is a trailblazer in the design of dynamic and texturally intriguing building facades that give the urban environment rhythm and movement. 2017 saw the Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois, win an A+ award from the Jury as well as a Popular Award. The complex, encompassing public rooms, practice areas, and a major performance space, honors the notion that theater is an experience best shared with others.
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2. Sheila Sri Prakash, Mahindra World City
An esteemed personality in the fields of sustainability and architecture is Sheila Sri Prakash. Since establishing Shilpa Architects Planners Designers in 1979, she has gained recognition for her creative and eco-friendly designs.
This woman architect was most recently given the Lifetime Achievement in Architecture Award by Builders, Architects, and Building Materials in connection with the CII Real Estate & Building Technology Exhibition in honor of her contributions to the industry. With an emphasis on sustainable design, she has had a significant impact on the expansion of the Indian real estate industry, and this award celebrates her excellent achievements.
Apart from this women architect’s occupation, Sri Prakash is acknowledged for her proficiency in urban sustainability and has functioned as an autonomous director and urban specialist for the Chennai Smart City project. The World Economic Forum has also extended an invitation to her to join the Global Future Council on the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security.
As a member of the Global Agenda Council for Design Innovation, she created the Reciprocal Design Index in 2013 to promote sustainable urban design.
3. Carme Pigem, Musée Soulages
Spanish woman architect Carme Pigem is a co-founder of the Olot, Spain-based architectural practice RCR Arquitectes. She was born in Olot, Spain, on April 18, 1962, and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona.
For her designs, she has won various awards, including the 2017 Pritzker Prize, which she shared with her collaborators Rafael Aranda and Ramón Vilalta. Pigem studied architecture at the El Vallès School of Architecture, which is located close to Barcelona, and the School of Fine Arts in Olot.
She and Vilalta Aranda co-founded RCR Arquitectes after she graduated, and since then, this woman architect has concentrated on building architecture that is closely related to the site, the materials, and the user experience.
Apart from her profession as an architect, Pigem has held academic positions at the El Vallès School of Architecture, the Barcelona School of Architecture, and the Department of Architecture at the Zurich Institute of Technology as a visiting professor.
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4. Odile Decq, The Fangshan Tangshan National Geopark Museum
French urban planner and architect Odile Decq is one of the greatest women architects renowned for her audacious and avant-garde designs. In 1985, she established her own highly acclaimed and multi-award-winning company, ODBC, in Paris. Since then, she has finished a variety of projects, such as residential structures, cultural institutions, and museums.
She views architecture as an adventure and feels that it should enhance people’s quality of life and adopt a humanistic perspective. Among her noteworthy undertakings are the FRAC Bretagne in Rennes and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome.
Decq is the recipient of many esteemed honors, such as the French Commandeur de l’Ordre du Merite and the Jane Drew Prize from the Women in Architecture Awards in 2016. She also established an international architecture school in Lyon to fuse the study of architecture with the study of physics, sociology, and the visual arts.
5. Nasrine Seraji, Paris-Saclay Campus
French-British woman architect Nasrine Seraji-Bozorgzad is of Iranian descent. After working in London and attending the Architectural Association, Seraji moved to Paris in 1989. 2011 saw Seraji receive the Knight of the Legion of Honor award. She has given lectures and held exhibitions in China, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe. She is currently employed with University College Dublin as an architectural design professor. Atelier Seraji entered the Paris-Saclay Campus concept as a competition project. In the southwest suburbs of Paris, there is housing for 330 apprentices and students as well as communal areas, offices, university cafes, an inter-institutional canteen, shops, and parking.
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6. Denise Scott Brown, Vanna Venturi House
Renowned modernist woman architect Denise Scott Brown is well-known for her creative and multicultural designs. In addition, she is an author, professor, and urban planner. She co-founded Venturi Scott Brown with her husband, Robert Venturi, and together they worked for the majority of her career.
This woman architect has developed structures for illustrious organizations like the Children’s Museum of Houston and globally recognized universities and museums. She has also helped in the planning of towns like Miami Beach and Memphis. Her studies in architecture and urban planning have influenced the field for a long time and greatly influenced the postmodern movement.
She gained notoriety when two Harvard students started a petition to grant her the Pritzker Prize; she was left out when her spouse and business partner, Robert Venturi, took home the prize in 1991. The petition sought to correct this omission and was signed by several Pritzker laureates, including Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. Denise claimed that the petition was a greater honor than the Pritzker itself, even if she did not end up winning the prize.
7. Maya Lin, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
When Maya Lin, a Yale University undergraduate, won the competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., she became well-known as an architect. Lin characterizes her idea for the memorial as “Cutting into the earth and polishing its open sides, like a geode,” which is precisely what she accomplished, according to a statement on her website. You can examine this woman architect’s initial memorial suggestion online.
Throughout her career, Lin has created several other “Memory works,” or monuments. These include the Women’s Table at Yale, and the multi-media What Is Missing? memorial on climate change, and the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.
Apart from these endeavors, Lin has also designed a variety of public and private structures, including the Museum of the Chinese in America and the Museum for African Art in New York City. Lin creates artworks as well as designs, many of which deal with environmental issues in one way or another.
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8. Neri Oxman, Aguahoja I
Israeli-American architect, designer, and educator Neri Oxman is one of the greatest women architects, well-known throughout the world for her creative, multidisciplinary approach to design. Oxman, who was born in Haifa, Israel in 1976, graduated from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in architecture and environmental studies.
This woman architect then went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to earn a master’s degree in architecture. Oxman has devoted her professional life to investigating the nexus of design, science, and technology. She has created a novel methodology known as “Material ecology,” which aims to produce intelligent materials and structures that can react instantly to their surroundings.
9. Zaha Hadid, Heydar Aliyev Center
Architect Zaha Hadid was one of the well-known and accomplished women architects who was well-respected for her skill, vision, and dedication to her profession. Hadid, who is now based in the UK but was born in Iraq, made history in 2004 when she became the first female Pritzker Prize winner. In the year of her untimely death in 2016, she was also granted the prestigious British architectural prize, the RIBA Gold Medal. After her death, Hadid left behind a £67 million wealth.
After graduating from the American University of Beirut’s architecture program in 1979, Zaha established her own architectural office and became well-known for her avant-garde, eye-catching structures with flowing organic forms. Her significant projects include the Generali Tower in Milan, the Guangzhou Opera House, the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics, and the Riverside Museum in Glasgow.
Hadid’s creative output brought her praise from critics and the title of “Starchitect,” and in 2010 Time Magazine listed her among the world’s 100 most important individuals. Her legacy and influence in the world of architecture are still being carried out by Zaha Hadid Architects.
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10. Elizabeth Diller, Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center
Known for her studio’s work on landmark buildings like MoMA, Lincoln Center, and New York City’s High Line, Elizabeth Diller is one of the hugely influential women architects and the founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. She was the only architect to be listed among TIME’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2018.
She and Ricardo Scofidio received the first architecture-related MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1999. This woman architect was designated a Wolf Prize Laureate in 2022. Diller teaches architectural design at Princeton University and is a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives. Apart from the High Line, some other noteworthy projects are Zaryadye Park in Moscow, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and The Broad, a contemporary art museum located in Los Angeles.
11. Habibeh Madjdabadi
Among the prominent Iranian women architects of the younger age is Habibeh Madjdabadi. The national and international media give her considerable recognition as an architect. She began her professional career in 2003 after receiving her first grand prize and opening her own office in Tehran. The Aga Khan Award (2016), the Chicago Award (2014), the Tamayouz Woman in Construction Award (2019), the Memar Award (2014) for House of 40 Knots, and the Worldwide Brick Award (2014) have all shortlisted her.
With 10,000 square meters of built space, the 70 Peaks Multipurpose Complex was designed as a tourist destination commercial center featuring eateries, cafés, and lodging. It is located on 60,000 square meters of land next to the highway that links Iran’s Arak with the holy city of Qom.
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12. Eileen Gray, E-1027 Villa
Irish modernist Eileen Gray first became well-known for her lacquer pieces that were created via age-old Asian methods. Later, she opened a boutique in Paris and ventured into furniture and interior design. Fashionable Parisians strongly valued Gray’s work because of its simplicity, geometric forms, and use of contemporary materials. Even though she was successful, Gray wished to stay out of the spotlight.
This woman architect didn’t have any official architectural background, but she started creating houses in the 1920s after becoming friends with architecture critic Jean Badovici. Her first project was the small, contemporary Villa E-1027 on the French Riviera, which has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean.
Like her designs, Gray’s architecture was warm and inviting while remaining practical and basic. Additionally, she placed a high priority on accommodating the residents’ individual needs—a concept that was new at the time. She created a table, for example, so that her sister could eat breakfast in bed without spilling. In addition, Gray created two houses for herself and many more that were never constructed.
In the final ten years of this woman architect life, Gray worked with Zeev Aram, the British designer Aram’s founder, to create furniture inspired by her designs. Aram still maintains the global license to use Gray’s furniture designs and offers a range of products with her designs, including screens, lamps, and beds. After years of disuse, Gray’s first architectural project, Villa E-1027, has been restored and is now accessible to the public.
13. Norma Merrick Sklarek, Commons Courthouse Center
In addition to being the first black woman architect to be admitted as a member of the American Institute of Architects and later elected as a fellow of the esteemed association, Norma Merrick Sklarek made history by being the first black woman to hold an architectural license in both New York and California. Sklarek has endured a great deal of discrimination, which makes his accomplishments all the more remarkable.
After graduating from Barnard College with a liberal arts degree, Sklarek went on to study architecture at Columbia University, where she was one of just two female students and the only African American in her class to receive a B. Arch. in 1950. Sklarek’s career hunt resulted in 19 rejections until she was hired by Skidmore Owings & Merrill in 1955.
Because so many of her students had advanced degrees, she had difficulties during her training in architecture. In her job hunt, Sklarek also experienced discrimination, though she wasn’t sure if it was because of her gender or color.
Sklarek is one of the women architects whose career progressed significantly due to her strong personality and intellectual vision. She co-founded Sklarek Siegel Diamond, the largest architecture firm in the US with only women partners, and later became director of Gruen Associates.
The US Embassy in Tokyo, the Pacific Design Center, San Bernardino City Hall, and LAX Terminal 1 are a few of her noteworthy achievements. Aspiring architects look up to Sklarek, who died in 2012; she said she had “Absolutely no role model” in the field of architecture and was content to serve as an example for others who came after.
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14. Lina Bo Bardi, Museu de Arte de São Paulo
After World War II, Lina Bo Bardi, an Italian native with strong ties to the country’s Modernist scene, relocated to Brazil with her husband, an art dealer. This woman architect’s most renowned creation, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), was designed in her chosen country. The building and the layout of the exhibition were both created by her.
Bo Bardi is one of the women architects who defied tradition by designing a single, expansive internal room with glass walls. Instead of being hanging on the walls, artwork, including paintings, was shown off on stands made of concrete and glass. This minimalist design was an especially daring decision for a museum housing a substantial collection of historical artwork.
But it also makes possible glass walls that let in natural light without the need for interior partitions to artificially separate works of art from various eras and locations. The structure itself appears suspended above the street outside, just as paintings are suspended in glass frames within the museum. Bo Bardi’s preference for tall, glass-filled structures is evident in her other designs, including Glass House, her own house in a São Paulo suburb.
15. Kazuyo Sejima, Zollverein School of Management and Design
Japanese woman architect Kazuyo Sejima, who also co-founded the Tokyo-based company SANAA, is renowned for her modernist structures that are simple and influenced by her Japanese ancestry. Together with Ryue Nishizawa, a coworker, Sejima was the second woman to win the coveted Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010. She has contributed to many international projects, such as the New Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
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16. Yasmeen Lari, Exhibition “Yasmeen Lari. Architecture for the Future
Yasmeen Lari, one of the women architects who is now a resident of Karachi, Pakistan, has transformed from a self-described “Starchitect” to a man who constructs mud homes and thinks of environmentally friendly ways to improve troublesome regions of his nation.
She was the first woman architect in Pakistan after attending the Oxford School of Architecture in the UK. She hailed from a wealthy family in Pakistan and began her career designing brutalist public housing in the 1960s and 1970s. The state-appointed her to design ostentatious corporate monuments like Karachi’s financial and trade center and the Pakistan State Oil House.
Although Lari founded the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan in 1980 because she was always drawn to helping others, her humanitarianism did not fully take hold of her life until the year 2000.
Conceptually and aesthetically, Lari’s approach to her work now is the complete opposite of what it was in the past. She has been constructing and renovating homes with plans that have been shown to protect them in the event of earthquakes and floods. She has assisted communities in making the most of the tools and resources at their disposal for reconstruction and, most importantly, the creation of safer living environments by working mostly with bamboo, mud, and lime.
The smokeless, sustainable “Challah,” created by Lari in 2014, was meant to take the place of the conventional open flame hearths that were causing major health problems. Unexpected social and financial effects of the Chulah initiative included newly empowered women teaching other women how to create their own for a small cost and reaping rich benefits, in addition to building and decorating their chulahs.
17. Annabelle Selldorf, 10 Bond
The principal and creator of Selldorf Architects in New York City is Annabelle Selldorf. Her modernist, practical approach to design has earned her much respect in the architectural community. She is one of the women architects, who was born in Germany, is renowned for designing warm and inviting minimalist environments, and she has won recognition for both her public and private work. Being a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an academician of the National Academy Museum and School, and a board member of the Architectural League of New York, she is a well-known figure in the American Architecture World.
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18. Farshid Moussavi, Folie Divine
Farshid Moussavi is an Iranian-British architect, designer, and educator. Since its founding in 2011, Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA) has worked on a range of projects, including cultural centers, public areas, and residential and commercial buildings. Among FMA’s noteworthy projects are the Victoria Beckham flagship store in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, and the La Folie Divine residential complex in Montpellier, France.
19. Amanda Levete, MAAT museum
British architect Amanda Levete founded the global architecture and design firm AL_A. Among this woman architect’s most renowned projects are the futuristic design of the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology in Lisbon and the modern wing of the V&A’s Exhibition Road Quarter in London. She received the Stirling Prize from RIBA. According to Levete, the design of buildings speaks to identity, social issues, and political issues, all of which define what it is to be human. She discovers that architecture is incredibly technical, cerebral, and artistic.
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20. Jane Drew, The Modernist Laboratory of the Future
We would also want to include Jane Drew in our list of the most amazing women architects in history. She was a 20th-century British modernist woman architect. Her remarkable architectural designs can be found in the Middle East, Africa, India, England, and Sri Lanka. The largest project she has worked on in her professional career was Chandigarh.
Janes Drew, her husband Maxwell Fry, and his collaborator Pierre Jeanneret collaborated with Le Corbusier to create the concept for Punjab’s capital city in India. The whole city was built from the ground up. This outstanding English architect passed away in 1996 after decades of service to the construction sector.
21. Amale Andraos, Beirut Museum of Art
This woman architect was Born in Beirut and has lived in France, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Amale Andraos was raised by an architect father. She began her career under Rem Koolhaas at the Office of Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam before moving to New York City and founding WORKAC with her husband, Dan Wood.
After fifteen years, the firm is known for applying playful subversion of typologies and conceptual rigor to real-world applications. A 2008 completion of Public Farm 1, one of its early career-defining projects, offered a functioning case for urban agriculture in the shape of an elevated, self-irrigating, sustainable farm in MoMA PS1’s courtyard.
Other noteworthy initiatives include the New Holland Island Cultural Center in St. Petersburg, the Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn, and 49 Cities, a book that reexamines urban planning from an ecological standpoint. Andraos, who has a broad and globally-aware scope in the area, made history in 2014 when she was appointed as the first female dean of Columbia GSAPP.
22. Deborah Berke
Deborah Berke is a skilled and refined minimalist space designer who leads a team of sixty employees at her firm. The firm’s projects include the interior design of 432 Park Avenue in Manhattan, the highest residential tower constructed in the Western Hemisphere, and other boutique properties within the 21C Museum Hotel. Having taught at Yale University’s School of Architecture since 1987, Berke was named dean in 2016. She is the first female dean of the school in its history.
“There has been a meaningful provocation with the #MeToo movement,” stated Berke. It’s sparked several discussions between kids and professors and given the school a teachable moment. Though they haven’t all been simple discussions, they have all been important and fruitful. Being the first female dean at Yale, along with several other women architects, has sparked discussions among faculty members. It’s not just applicable to buildings.
“I have said for a long time that the profession of architecture needs to look like the public it serves,” Berke continued, speaking of her own business. We put a lot of effort into fostering an inclusive and equitable culture at all levels at my company. We are aware that having a variety of viewpoints improves our design.
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23. Sandra Barclay, Clifftop Villa to Blend in with the Peruvian Desert
Originally established by woman architect Sandra Barclay and her partner Jean Pierre Crousse, Barclay & Crousse was based in Paris for 12 years until being moved to Lima, Peru, this woman architect’s hometown. The Place of Remembrance, Tolerance, and Social Inclusion is a tranquil cultural center devoted to the reconciliation of Peruvians. There, she and her team have worked on a variety of educational, residential, and cultural programs. Barclay & Crousse proceeded to curate Peru’s pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016, serving as representatives of the country.
For her firm’s recent work constructing a lyrical new structure for the Museo de Sitio de Paracas, which had previously been destroyed in an earthquake in 2007, Barclay was named the Woman Architect of the Year by Architects’ Journal and The Architectural Review.
Conclusion
The position of women architects is growing along with society. In the architectural sector, which has historically been perceived as being controlled by men, women are now breaking down barriers and achieving important advancements. More women architects are rising to the top of the profession, breaking down barriers, and changing the built environment these days.
The rising number of women working in architecture firms is one obvious shift. Nearly half of all architecture graduates worldwide, according to recent polls, are women architects. This change is encouraging a more inclusive work culture in the sector as well as providing a diversified perspective on design and construction. As long as women stay together with men, teamwork will only get deeper and more comprehensive.
In addition, women architects are addressing important social issues in their designs. These gifted individuals use architecture as a catalyst for good change, from designing accessible and inclusive environments to developing eco-friendly and sustainable buildings. Conventional ideas about what architecture means for society as a whole are challenged by their distinct viewpoints on social responsibility and community involvement.
In summary, women’s roles in architecture have changed dramatically over time. They are changing what it means to be an architect in the modern day with their greater representation in firms and creative design methods. We must support and honor the accomplishments of these trailblazing women architects as we continue on this path of advancement, as they encourage future generations to choose careers in architectural design.
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Resources:
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For all the pictures: Archdaily | Illinois News Bureau | Skyline Architecture Blog | Optima, Inc. | Shilpa Architects | Revista Haus | Nancy Coste | Parametric Architecture | ASIA DESIGNER COMMUNICATION PLATFORM | The Fabric Workshop and Museum | Curbed Philly | Art21 | Dezeen | Haute Residence | The Guardian | Micoope | Archello | Irish Independent | Docomomo US | Pioneering Women of American Architecture | Casati Gallery | ArchEyes | DesignWanted | Wikipedia | Floornature | Architectural Record | Chicago Architecture Center | MPavilion | Architectuul | Architect Magazine | Fay Jones School of Architecture | Rethinking The Future
