All of Those That Shape Our World: Madame Architect on Stories and Lessons for a New Way Forward
At the UIA World Congress of Architecture in Copenhagen, I had the honour of joining a thought-provoking panel on diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) in the architecture profession, a discussion brought together by Julia Gamolina, Founder of Madame Architect.
Women have been designing, building, and making decisions about the worlds we have built for as long as we have been building it, but for too long, their leadership, innovation, and creativity has been underrepresented.
After a talk that Julia gave on how Madame Architect came to be and the need for more diverse representation in architectural media. She discussed her work putting forward the voices and stories of extraordinary change makers in architecture that weren’t typically heard.
Julia then led a panel discussion on what it means to have our world designed by as many different types of voices as possible. The various insights shared by Julia, Sheela Maini Søgaard, CEO of BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, and Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Architect and Founder of Snøhetta, underscored the importance of inclusivity and representation in our industry.
About Madame Architect
Madame Architect is a digital magazine and media start-up celebrating the extraordinary women that shape our world, a magazine designed to break the architect’s mold and show young women entering the industry the myriad choices they have in crafting a dynamic, meaningful, and interesting career.
Madame Architect was founded in 2018 to bring to light and celebrate all of the different professionals, who identify as women, that contribute to the built environment, and has since told the stories of over 300 architects and designers – including Frida Escobedo, Neri Oxman, Dorte Mandrup, Deborah Berke, Odile Decq, and Pritzker Laureates Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara – as well as CEOs, publicists, journalists, business strategists, counsel, and more.
About UIA World Congress of Architecture – 2023 Copenhagen
The International Union of Architects UIA organises a World Congress of Architects every three years. The UIA World Congress in 2023 was held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
More than 6000 participants from 135 countries, 150 sessions, 250 science papers & 400 speakers came together in Copenhagen – all with 1 goal: Sustainable Futures – Leave No One Behind.