The Danish Architecture Center celebrates women in architecture in a new exhibition that highlights the industry’s most influential female architects
Photography by Laura Stamer
Who are the overlooked women in Danish architecture? How are prominent international architects inspiring us to create spaces that improve our quality of life and what are the hopes and future dreams of younger architects?
These are just some of the questions Women in Architecture, a new exhibition at DAC (Danish Architecture Center), hopes to answer, celebrating the significant contribution women make to architecture.
Photography by Laura Stamer
Curated by DAC, in collaboration with Jannie Bendsen, Svava Riesto, Henriette Steiner and Liv Løvetand Rahbek, who have contributed research-based knowledge and curatorial input, the exhibition will take visitors through Danish architectural history.
Furthermore, Women in Architecture will give visibility to projects designed by the likes of Hanne Kjærholm, Karen Clemmesen, Lene Tranberg, Dorthe Mandrup, and others, as well as invite visitors to explore spectacular installations by international architectural studios such as Mexico City-based Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Norwegian firm Helen & Hard and Madrid’s Ensamble Studio.
Photography by Laura Stamer
Through a historical survey and an overview of contemporary architecture, the exhibition spotlights some of the women through history who played a pivotal role in conceptualising, designing and building Denmark from the 1920s to the 1970s and what legacy they have left behind.
Prepared in collaboration with scholars from the University of Copenhagen, the historical part of the exhibition called ‘The Archive’, celebrates the untold stories and overlooked accomplishments of female architects, including architects Ragna Grubb, Karen Hvistendahl and Ingeborg Schmidt, who were among the first to speak out in support of the idea that children should have their own bedrooms.
Photography by Jaime Navarro featuring Acuña Sustainable Housing by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio
Through drawings, photography and models, the exhibition also presents a number of contemporary architects, such as Thea Christine Høeg and Christina Gimenez, among others, who share their experiences as architects in Denmark today. Together, they engage in public debate and dialogue around gender issues.
A series of installations by Tatiana Bilbao, Siv Helene Stangeland and Débora Mesa make up A Room of One’s Own, which draws on the English author and feminist Virginia Woolf’s 1929 extended essay of the same name. A key work of feminist literary criticism, it examines the educational, social and financial disadvantages women have faced throughout history, and now, has inspired elements of DAC’s exhibition.
Photography by Ensamble Studio featuring Ensamble Fabrica
Finally, the last part of Women in Architecture, Future Dreams, showcases the experiences of four young female architects who work in the spectrum of urban space, design, buildings and green transition.
Together, they share a belief that architecture can promote inclusion, diversity and security in the physical environment – just like many of the female-driven projects on display at DAC so beautifully illustrate.
Women in Architecture is on display at Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen until 23 October 2022
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