AR Reading List 048: Reputations of women

Since 2011, almost every issue of the AR has included a Reputations: a portrait of an influencer or agitator, written by an independent critic, to break with historic canons or investigate the most significant characters of our time – each published with an illustration commissioned to show the character with their work. Historically, women have been denied recognition, written out of history, or not allowed the spotlight altogether. This reading list brings together the Reputations of seven female architects, urbanists and critics. The archive of Reputations is not meant as a roll call of the great and the good, instead emphasising the successes and the failures that have shaped architecture through history. This selection shines a light on those who opened doors and paved the roads for many more to come.

Formerly known as the Women in Architecture awards, the W Awards recognise the contribution of people who identify as women and non-binary from around the world, promoting role models for young architects in practice and encouraging respect, diversity and equality in architecture. This year, we are excited to be celebrating the W Awards 2021 with a series of lectures and conversations, conducted digitally across seas and borders. Join us for a week of conversations with Kate Macintosh, Yasmeen Lari, Lesley Lokko, Beatriz Colomina and architects shortlisted for this year’s Moira Gemmill and MJ Long Prizes, starting 8 March. Book your place here.

Jane Drew (1911-1996), AR July 2014, Iain Jackson
‘Drew’s reputation should reflect her potency as a shaker and instigator; she got things done and without fear of the new or venturing into the unknown’

Ada Louise Huxtable (1921-2013), AR February 2019, Kate Wagner
‘Huxtable was able to advocate the social and architectural ambitions of Modernism, while remaining a sage and vocal critic of its failures’

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), AR November 2011, Sharon Zukin
‘Jacobs’s plainspoken critique of the architectural conformity that dogged post-war Modernism challenged the prevailing wisdom about rebuilding cities for the executive class’

Svetlana Kana Radević (1937-2000), AR March 2020, Anna Kats
‘Marginalised even in retrospective histories of Yugoslav architecture, Radević has been relegated to near-total obscurity in global architectural history’

Minnette de Silva (1918-1998), AR July/August 2019, Shiromi Pinto
‘For all de Silva’s pioneering thinking and much-vaunted elegance, her reputation for being a “difficult woman” never left her’

Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), AR July/August 2018, Catherine Slessor
‘The house she designed for herself in the Alps is perhaps her most poetic and astute foray into a transplanted Japanese l’art de vivre’

Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), AR March 2018, Owen Hatherley
‘There was always something sad in the way that the hugely wasteful but fascinating, bristling and bafflingly complex steel skeletons of these later ‘Parametric’ buildings would be covered with perfunctory shiny cladding’