So good morning everyone we choose to Katia for having the lecture today because it's a short time
presentation and it would be confusing if we both start talking
okay let me tell you a little bit about them [Laughter]
This morning our first presentation is by Katia Frey and Eliana Perotti. I'll tell you a little
bit about both of them. Frey studied history of art, history of far eastern art and English
literature at the University of Zurich, obtained her PhD at the University of Paris Sorbonne. From
1998 to 2016 she was a researcher and lecturer at the chair of the history and theory of urban
design at ETH Zurich where she co-directed research projects with Eliana Perotti,
the problem of air pollution historical view in the development of sustainable city, cost action
integrated assessment technologies to support the sustainable development of urban areas, city and
text analogy of anthology of urban design. Current research interests mainly concern gender topics
and architecture and planning including senior researcher at Flora Ruchat-Roncati at the ETH
1985-2002, professor planner theoretician, funded by the Swiss national research
foundation. Since 2015 she's been the co-director of the exhibition and publication safa
1958. Since 2009 co-director of the research project women theorists on city and urban
design. She's initiator of ahon interest group gender and architecture and urban design.
Eliana Perotti is an art and architecture historian specializing in urban history.
She obtained her PhD at the University of Berne in 2000. From 1989 to 2002 she was a lecturer at
the faculty for history of art at the university of applied sciences [inaudible] at the university
and at the faculty... sorry, and at the faculty for history of art at the Zurich
University of arts. Since 2005 she worked as a senior researcher and lecturer in the institute
of history and theory of architecture at the faculty of architecture at Zurich. There she
initiated and conducted numerous research projects releasing major publications on history and theory
from design with a particular interest for the history of ideas and politics and postcolonial
gender studies. Today they will present architect Flora Ruchat-Roncati, first female professor
at at ETH Zurich, breaking new ground in practice and teaching. Thank you Shelly
yes okay can you also use this one okay thank you Shelly and uh good morning everybody and
thank you uh Donna and Sharon for inviting us here to speak about our project
um the research project Flora Ruchat-Roncati at ETH 1985 to 2002
professor planner theoretician was carried from 2017 to 2018 and it was funded by the
Swiss national science foundation and hosted by the architectural department at the ETH
Zurich which is the Swiss federal institute of technology the team comprised of five researchers
art historians and architects and the publication is in preparation for the end of the year
please have a look at our web page
our research on Flora Ruchat-Roncati at ETH aims to trace the trajectory of an exceptional
career and this is not only in the perspective of a woman's of women's history being a pioneer
in her way of practicing and teaching architecture and being a role model
for several generations of students especially of course female students
it's um born as Flora Roncati in 1937 in Mendozio in the Italian speaking region of
southern Switzerland she studied architecture at the Swiss federal institute
of technology which will which is the ETH and i will uh quote it as ETH later
and open the practice in 1960 in dicino with aurelio galfetti and evo trumpy
here's uh one of their major work together
she rose to prominence as a protagonist of the techinese architecture
that gained wide recognition in the mid 70s the so-called tendencies movement whose influence
on the international architectural discourse is still perceptible today
In 1975 she settled in Rome operating as an advisor for the italian national
cooperative housing association building among others for the trade unions the youth social
housing complex la colaside in taranto southern italy the turning point in her
career was her nomination to the position of professor at the ETH
her academic curriculum is in itself outstanding but it highlights also the exceptional and
pioneering aspects of her career when compared to other successful women architect in the time
in Switzerland she was in 79 the first woman to be visiting a lecturer at the ETH and in 1985
the first woman to hold a chair not only at the architectural department but in the whole ETH
her extraordinary trajectory was partly acknowledged by traditional
manifestations with honor's successful career as architect and academic as for example the
the monographic exhibition at ETH for the jubilee of her 60th birthday this is the main hall
of the ETH in in the city and here at the exhibition
architectural department following feminist historian barbara kane we can interpret Flora
Ruchat-Roncati's biography as the story of a notable individual with a heroic or as we
prefer to point out pioneering dimension becoming the first woman professor at the
swiss national university an institution of high reputation and in fact a kind of national icon
Flora Ruchat-Roncati occupied her chair at the ETH
in 1985 14 years only after Swiss women's suffrage writing that's a chapter in the national
history also outstanding is a very prosperous archival situation concerning
Flora Ruchat-Roncati which enabled us to reconstruct very closely her former mentees
her thinking and planning procedure collecting the tessera of her culture the evidence of her
reading her interest and also the tracks of her private biography so we have the high
school uh university archives and the department architectural archives of the department and also
her request in the in in chino we also had access to flora russia's um
library still located in her house in Riva San Vitale and to her notebook the so-called takuini
which document nearly 20 years of daily observing and thinking practice so this is a page of her
notebook and her library this fortunate archival situation is exceptional when doing research on
women architects solving the problem of source gathering is probably the first and also the most
incessive obstacle and sets up a series of primer challenges when archive materials are not existing
or not available if you take a glance at female legacies in the most famous
European architectural archives it looks as if this difficulty will be perpetuated sometime
at the well-known gta archive which is the architectural archive at the ETH which
store around 250 architects bequest only four of them are related to women
elizabeth bloom lux guyer trix houseman lisbeth sax and very soon due to our research on safa
1958 and also to the effort of personal effort of eliana the legacy of ann marie
hubbard constance who was the chief architect of this safa project will be
will be found in in the gta archive this situation is not only reflecting a value system
but also compromising future studies and puppet perpetuating a unilateral history telling so it
should be very seriously addressed as you are all aware here at the archive of Romanian architecture
the automatic disposition of our project on florence roncati and its methodological approach
faced a range of complex questions ranging from theoretical awareness to political opportunity
from academic innovation to histographic claims the topic has to break new ground which is a major
issue in historical research on women and our aim was to re-question the different categories
of devices utilizing them in regard to our specific requirement and correcting historiography
readjusting some restrictive modes of the disciplinary narrative we use interviews as
an investigation tool in a very comprehensive way as primary and secondary sources and we
integrated the result of this the data gained with traditional archival evaluation and it offer
which could offer a kind of controlling tool for the information we gained this way orally so we
these are two examples of people we interviewed evo trumpian the first office partner in the
early period in the sixties and seventies and sandra jiraodi which uh who was first student
and then assistant of uh flora richard who is now an uh successful architect in ticino
networks and partnerships were the substrate in which the collaborative approach of laura richards
sings its roots postponing the issue of authorship neglecting the idea of a recognizable
architectural signature that is characteristic for many of her male colleagues her investment
in network for support extended from the collaborative aspects of architectural practice
to teaching most of her built work was produced through collaborations as something absorbed
from her formative environment so the connection to other chinese architects
consolidated while studying at eth and continued beyond the dismantling of her first official
partnership with aurelio galfetti and ivo trimpy beside the banu they one of their most
iconic project is this school complex in rivasan vitale which is where she she lived and alongside
her partnership with aurelius alfetti and trumpy from the early 60s to the early 70s she had also
a partnership with dolph nebley and tobias amman between 1990 and 1997 she went various form of
short-term collaboration on specific projects as the extension of the epfl campus which is the also
the national swiss university of technology in the uh french-speaking part of switzerland so they are
in fact two national universities in switzerland so this project that she did with her former
um partners when she left the partnership she came back to them and did this project with them
alongside um she also uh had a partnership with renato salvi her former assistant
in fact she formed a working collective for one project which was the uh infrastructure
project of the highway between 1989 and 1998. this collaborative working model has been grasped
in initially as a way to overcome her own personal circumstances as a young without mother
during her bereavement in the early 1960s her successful practice in which raising her
daughter was integrated as a matter of course this became a surrogate for her family life
from then on her practice and later her chair at the architectural department of edh were
characterized by a very unique juxtaposition of personal and professional spheres
so
among mafiosi that's the the title that flora richaronkatsu put on the photograph
the ritual of dining with guests thus played a central role throughout russia's life and career
and we also followed her path and launched a project with an oral history picnic
gathering one of her daughter the writer and translator anna riccia
and many of her former students and assistants here
the core topic of our research being her academic career as professor
we examined her lecture and design studio that is the themes and methods of her teaching with
a special interest in the gender issues mainly questioning her position on gender and the way she
became a role model for generations of students actually her position as first and only women
a woman professor put risharankati from the beginning in a public light forcing her into
the mould of a prominent role model so these are the uh newspapers uh um
published when she her nomination was uh was known and uh it's just a um funny way of um
let's see bastion give me a bassion de fallen means like the last um mains
i don't know yeah bastion has fallen yes so with um as two students remembered later they said that
took her course in 1799 when she was a visiting lecturer specifically because they expect expected
some impulse from her being a woman flora charron get his presence at the eth level that significant
updating and renewing of the department's teaching she introduced a holistic approach to planning
decisively opening up a range of innovative topics of which the gender one is the most
evident but not the only one evidences regarding her gender awareness her policy and her aura as
a role model are testified in many interviews conducted with her colleagues and assistants
hence flora viscerance always had grasped opportunity to support women in their careers
she was the one who suggested her assistant petra stojanik for the position of assistant professor
in 1993 as she had proposed and supported ines lamina who she had met during her roman time for
the position of assistant professor in 1994. ines lamina was in her turn the first woman professor
at the eth lausanne and the second woman holding a chair in the whole eth lausanne by the time
lighting up the darkness surrounding other women has been also a part of
flora richaronkaty's disciplinary effort in academia very early in a time as aileen
gray was still overlooked in historiography she showed interest for the work and figure of this
multi-talented architect and designer regularly coaching her cutting gray in her lectures
as many students did remember and as recorded in her personal notebook
she also comments on significant historical female figure as katarina
so in her notebooks focusing mainly on fundamental issues of
female biography and career on the importance of education their financial and political positions
her personality and teaching spirit helped open up new perspective in the curriculum
as attested by the innovative elective course women in the history of architecture
set up in the summer semester of 94 in the collaboration with peter stollenik
and which has been the first gender educational effort at the department of architecture of eth
the goal of this study women in the history of architecture was to rediscover women architects
whose name had disappeared from the historiography and inviting many guests from outside experts in
neighboring disciplines as art history literature or film studies
the course was interested in pointing out a historical and theoretical contextualized way
of thinking highlighting the social economic and cultural background of architectural work
and open up thinking spaces and changing perspective for students well let me conclude this
very short presentation on the pioneering role of flora richaron cathy as architect and teacher
with these diagrams that she prepared for her lectures
a kind of legacy still used by some of her students in in their daily work now as as they
told us the diagram left shows the role of the architect and in this case a woman her position
being between the determining exterior factors and the immutable architectural principles
the diagram right shows the architect and the intrinsic value of design at the intersection
of determining categories place time and architectural program thank you for your attention
so we're gonna um have all the uh
presentations first and then we're gonna show together and have a question
okay do you have a pocket oh no no no no no it's just uh uh i'll see who this is
currently serving on two boards our international archive of women architecture board as honorary
advisor and the sharer board as of the asian liaison to society of architectural historians
she also contributes on the advisory board of the global encyclopedia of women in architecture
edited by lori brown and karen burns her research is focused on women's narratives and architecture
and on transformative architecture trends that ignite across disciplinary discourse
she's the first independent woman curator of international paper architecture exhibitions
um and as milka blissnaught listenerkoff scholar she is conducting a research project life into
architecture milk with lismacroft academic papers and records of russian women architects at the
aiwa a textbook project rep religious companion to women in architecture project design code
of utopia she was a phd in architecture and landmarks preservation from the central branch of
russian academy of architecture and construction sciences and is a graduate from moscow institute
of architecture and the new york university i'm contributed for nine years at the metropolitan
museum of art education department and worked as curator of exhibitions at the bachmann art
museum today she will present expanding the archive heritage of russian architecture okay
hello everyone and thank you very much shelley for your presentation of my work and uh i want
to thank us the center of the archive for inviting us and everyone for coming to this session
today it is a worldwide phenomenon that written histories as many of us noticed already
a lot consistency in readings on the contribution of women to the built environment collaboration
and activism evidently empower uh us to expanding the archive and recognizing latin second records
of women's influence that and accomplishments in architecture on this slide i show you a sketch
by the most studio for sustainable architecture from chicago uh it was rendered to follow in
time the transformation of the dress code of women in architecture but we can definitely
see hear more of a layered message on the faceless presence of women in professional chronicles
with a great great potential to enliven this line with hundreds of inspiring portraits
my presentation today reconstructs those years across the political divide
the mission of milk ablazenikov here is continued by aiming at the case studies
of practices of women in russian architecture the founder of the international archive of
women and architecture at virginia tech she was an authority on russian constructivism
currently the majority of professional workforce in russian architecture are women and the
it's about 80 percent of architecture students are women too uh the characters of russian
architecture so are largely unknown across borders today the portfolios are highlighted
of just three of those magnificent female figures awarded with the title
the architect emerita of the russian federation i start with lydia kumarawa chronologically
lydia komarova an audible constructivist the architect of primary university centers
designer of the first spiral skyscraper 1929 and an architectural historian
then tamara kovalevsky a recognized modernist architect of major public structures in the
russian north board president of the union of architects of carelia and the lifelong university
professor and nina ali oceana a head architect of the transportation authority design institute
metroid presence in moscow an architect of 19 remarkable subway stations in moscow
lisa kumarova i miss the patronimic names they are complicated so she was leader
constantine of nakamura after her father was born in involved in one of those nissans a professional
provincial town of the russian empire here's the view down there in 1919 camaro was started
her professional studies at the avant-garde free state art studios in moscow and in 1920
she transferred to the department of architecture at futamas and studied in the united left studios
headed by professor lodovsky who was a legendary architect and a powerful inspiration for his
students camaro was stake in her graduate thesis project the commentary in palace 1929 on the top
envisioned as a spiral skyscraper was inspired by ladovsky's teachings
on new geometries of public space her drawings were included in the
university archive of the best designs and so a mine when i graduate from the same institution
uh komaru was the only woman among graduates whose designs have been published in the primary
periodical contemporary architecture ca and have been later compared to frank lloyd wright's
designs of the guggenheim museum in new york 1959. in the late 1930s the authorities banned
the avant-garde agenda in favor of socialist realism and until today her drawings remain latent
not only due to the readings of gender but to the changing political and aesthetic directives
camaro was cited in the phd program program and practiced architecture in moscow during
world war ii she designed war memorials later during the massive postwar rebuilding efforts
along with other architects she followed the quality uh political dynamics uh dynamics of
the time yet in her search for a form building aesthetics forefoot forcefully evolving from
the avant-garde to neoclassicism to mid-century modernism uh starting 1947 leader continued her
career at the state design institute for facilities of higher education gipraboose
her big scale assignment launched in 1949
as a lead architect of the historical bauman moscow state technical university
the structure was commissioned by the state and inaugurated in 1960 according to kamarov's concept
the building has been comprised of two parts the old part called the palace right below
the original remodeled landmark from the turn of the 18th century and the new new part called
the high rise built by new designs of camaro by 12 storied edifice overseeing the yao ze river
housing major administrative offices four schools
hall of the palace of culture and the university museum
i looked online and i googled the map or in the uh the um
views of this uh structure on this snapshot from google maps you can see two parts of the
structure from above uh and they have been adjoined through these three solid storage
hallways in 1995 the complex building received the status of a cultural heritage landmark of russia
others are the other designs by komarova include university ensembles commissioned by the state
such as the kuroganda state technical university in kazakh republic the first national polytech
that marked the threshold in the political and economic history of kazakhstan
this structure was built in 1960s and provide us places for 20 departments 25 educational
laboratories seven uh automatic classrooms uh kamarov left an empowering legacy her archives
until today are largely not accessible and not much of her writings are available for readings
uh tamara cavalli of scatter the architect of modernist public structures in the russian north
and a lifelong architecture professor was born in elizabeth in central ukraine
not far from here after the born 1964 kovalevsky graduated from the
moscow institute of architecture as my alma mater and according to state regulations was
assigned for a three-year entry-level position in krasnoyarsk in siberia
she arrived back in moscow in 1952 for a study in a continuing education program
at marquis and after graduation 1954 yet again she was not um appointed to stay in moscow
but sent to the city of petrasavask the capital of carilia in the north northern part of um in the
european part of russia northern european part of russia there she continued her professional career
at the state design institute carrier project until her retirement in 1981. cavaliers joined
the group of architects in charge of the post-war building of the city during the khrushchev so
uh the modernist concept was reincarnated as the guideline for speedy reconstruction
modeled on industrial paradigms by the designs of kovalevska six major buildings have been
reacted in petrosavos during her lifetime starting in 1969 with a state philharmonics it's on the top
um that was the state philharmonics of carelia and it was awarded the first
ranked certificate of the ministry of construction of the russian federation
in 1970 her two structures designed by kovalevska have been built the central uh market and right
uh and the book depository in 1978 the movie theater caliballa
on the bottom there that's colorful structure and with the inbuilt restaurant
in 1982 the building of the headquarters of the federal treasury of the republic of korea
the patriarch was palace of youth and creativity designed
under the leadership of kovalevskin built 1985
was awarded the state prize of carrelia the highest republican merit of honor kovalevsky
was also renowned as a selfless educator she aligned her practices with professorship
at two universities and from 1954 to 81 was teaching the architecture studio and the diploma
thesis courses at the petrosworks state university and petroswas technical school of construction
she was repeatedly elected board president of the union of architects of karelia
and was also serving on the board of the union of architects of the ussr in moscow
simultaneously i was the knight of the order of the badge of honor
the lead architect of 19 innovative metro stations in moscow the recipient of multiple highest
state awards the head of architect of the metropolitan state institute of
transportation design metro gateway an architect the merit of the russian federation from 1985
is one of the most celebrated uh women in russian architecture
uh born in moscow she started at the moscow institute of architecture and after graduation in
1950 was appointed at the studio of alexey dushkin much admired for his pioneering achievements
multiple transportation hubs and five early metro stations in moscow for instance krapotkinska
you can see it on your left on my right yeah okay down there 1935 uh the moscow metro map
on the top was envisioned as an artistically cross crafted transportation system that would
not only provide efficiency but establish the new cultural aesthetics of the state
by creating aerospaces challenging the sense of being underground in the 1960s 70s
a large number of new stations adopted the unifying structural template alessioner however
aimed at developing designs with a character from from 1981 to 91 aleutian was appointed the head of
design division of the entire metro transportation authority while also working on her own designs
uh she was a real perfectionist on a daily basis visiting and supervising construction sites
of those 19 metro stations i um built by designs of kamarova
i selected a few uh really inspiring examples for instance chertan of uh chairtan of sky station in
moscow 1983 eliminates uh alexander yoshino's personalities these designs were developed
in memory of hermoral model alexey doshkin and his arie krapotkin sky station alexander
personally oversaw the construction and materials from start to finish
uh uh on top of the kuznetsky bridge
um the 122 feet deep underground station in the downtown moscow by architects alyosha and
samoylova was inaugurated 1975 awarded the state prize of the council of the ministers of the ussr
czechological 1995 uh architects alioshan with barzankov and wigdorf named after the
hero pilot walirich khalif employs the team of aviation and is laid 153 feet deep underground
uh the
subject of the uh mendeleev's gas station 1988 was the discovery by the chemical uh uh scientist
mithrim and delave of the periodic table and uh that was depicted in the lighting structurally
resembling varying sizes of a molecular molecular grid the october field 1972
was a collaboration of alushina and zaitseva and that's our last example the uh aisle featured
columns encased in aluminum set uh uh atop gray granite floors and marble paving in the center
in addition two awards recognizing her wars i have worked heroic aliotion was the knight
of the order of the page of honor was the recipient of the medal for labour whaler
this study contributes to expanding our archive our knowledge about women in architecture
and eliminates potential collections for of distinction thank you very much thank you
architecture historian marianne hunting received her doctorate
from the city university of new york's graduate center
so
modernist architects in the united states in the mid 20th century
they will present networks and archives the cambridge school and beyond thank you so much
and modernist architects
they built particularly in the middle decades of the 20th century when women were effectively
archives
where did i do that never asked
the cambridge school was founded in 1916 to satisfy the needs of women excluded from the
all male architecture and landscape architecture harvard university or they were unwelcome at the
nearby co-educational massachusetts institute of technology in spite of being absorbed in the late
1930s by smith college for financial support and so that degrees took could be given the cambridge
school was dissolved at the very moment harvard agreed to accept women architecture candidates
because of its sagging wartime enrollments until then women had thrived at the cambridge school
because of the progressive curriculum designed specifically for them just as they were encouraged
to do at the cambridge school as the young graduates fanned out across the country they used
their networks to locate work in established firms and in such related fields as interior decoration
publishing merchandising and museum work in some cases the connections the students formed
for fermented at the school with faculty alumni and trustees panned out almost immediately
not only did g holmes perkins a faculty member at both harvard and the cambridge school find spots
in his office for recent graduates but the school's director henry frost partnered with
one of its one of the school's earliest graduates eleanor raymond which one do i do
can you just do this yeah thanks as one of the most successful alumni architects raymond was
the linchpin of the cambridge school fostering relationships offering work opportunities in her
boston office to at least seven women critiquing student production and bringing them together at
our summer house her her life partner ethel brown power who raymond's on the left over there powers
on the right um was also an architect graduate and she used her 10-year editorship of house
beautiful to advocate for the cambridge school community by publishing their work and writing
as well as espousing the school's forward-looking principles in the course of our book research we
set out to identify similar networks of cambridge school women and we asked how they use them to
advance themselves professionally we also explore how women's networks compared to those of men
the answers we repeatedly discovered tend to be found on seemingly unimportant bits of paper
or in the nearly forgotten recollections or even obliviousness of their descendants the voids we
show can provide insight into how women architects were perceived by society their families and
themselves i researched the sentence across the country from maine in new hampshire to montana
and california and yet the interconnections between women architects can be elusive
oftentimes the evidence lies in journals correspondence and photographs these materials
remain in the hands of their now elderly sons or daughters housed in barns and outbuildings
attics and basements or rented storage spaces as well as in the original studios or offices of the
of their mother even so on occasion archives can be found in professionally managed institutions
the francis loeb library at harvard for example is a repository of three pertinent archives
the first and most sizable was donated by eleanor raymond three years before she died in 1989
and consists of some 300 projects represented in drawings firm records correspondence
and photographs the raymond papers also contain a small number of letters and summer diaries
written by power between 1933 and 1941 and yet the collection is incomplete since we know
that the grand niece of raymond returned some of the raymond's personal items
for a number of years we've been inquiring about the postcards raymond and power either sent from
europe or brought back with them in the late 1920s and early 30s when they traveled specifically
to see modern architecture following the recommendations of henry russell hitchcock these
potentially important documents we fear eventually will mold her away given our correspondence with
the niece who wrote us in november 2016 while the paper items were mostly in deplorable condition
i hope it is some comfort that they did not seem historically significant the postcards are not in
great shape and were clearly visited by mice but shoe boxes proved to be less appealing for nesting
than the other larger boxes we have not heard back from her since then
the e the small collection at harvard of another cambridge school architect graduate
louisa von conrad sheds light on the short period between 1940 and 1942 when she and a cambridge
school peer sally pillsbury started a regional distributed distributorship of our tech furniture
and accessories designed by the altos based on the archive however no one would ever know that
von alk von conrad designed a number of modern buildings including her own house in pride's
crossing massachusetts which exhibits regional vernacular inspirations or a house in st
lucia based on the iconic silo form both of which emerge organically from the landscape
the final cambridge school architect documented at harvard is a viennese immigrant named friend zizka
porgs hoskin though perhaps better known today as a feminist activist she was one of the first
women to obtain a master's degree at harvard after which she embarked on a prolific career
ranging from architect and designer of furniture jewelry interiors toys and clothing
to journalists and critic to educator and architecture photographer her collection
of nearly 67 000 images at texas a m a series of her drawings which one archivists referred to as
silly little cartoons embody the spirit mood and dynamic of the students in the summer of 1942
and the following fall when women entered harvard's graduate school of design
besides a few party photographs with walter gropius these cartoons are the only images of
which we are aware to comment on the entry of women into harvard's graduate school of design
though the records of the cambridge school are spotty
a complete set of the alumni bulletins are in the archives at smith as a primary source about
the women's mounting enthusiasm for modernism in the mid-1930s the bulletins abound with
pertinent material including reports of the annual alumni weekends when networks of alumni
students and faculty were revitalized the weekends also informed alumni of current trends
in tours exhibitions lectures and meetings so taken was with once was one student with issa
and walter gropius after they attended one of the weekend functions not long after they had
arrived in the united states that the student submitted a poem to the bulletin that concluded
then the guests all confessed with affectionate looks more eloquent even than tears they had all
learned in 10 minutes far more than all books would have taught them in 70 years
more information can be coming from cambridge school graduates whose fragile ephemeral documents
show their vital relationships the cambridge school's proximity to
harvard and the fact that a number of women transferred there when it became co-educational
meant that a substantial group went on to marry men who were also architects in many instances
the personal archives of women show that architecture was the glue that cemented
their relationships the residence is the place where architect couples collaborated most closely
and where the working methods are often best documented a case in point is suzanne stockard
who met her husband julian underwood in 1941 while attending the summer school at harvard
stockard was considered a brilliant student at the cambridge school and succeeded under
the tutelage of gropius at harvard where she received her masters in architecture while
her husband served in the military during the war the couple corresponded regularly as you can see
and extensively about the summer house they would build for themselves in non-quit massachusetts
from the outset they imagined a modern house as their touch sketches testify the end result was
raised 10 feet off the ground on columns and featured expanses of plate glass to capitalize
on the water view it also blended with its surroundings through the use of wood shingles
as cladding and fieldstone for foundations and a massive chimney producing a regional variant
of modernism earth underwood's interface with such pioneering modernists as philip johnson
who ushered at their wedding but without access to their shared private archive however we would
not have known that well before attending harvard stockholm underwood already had experimented with
modern architecture at bennington college in vermont and then at the cambridge school
judging from her extant student drawings the trust we have built with their daughter
joan has made the family more comfortable sharing archival materials
including this photo of a cake made by her mother that she sent to us just last week
in the cases of some the lack of documentation speaks volumes about the nature of their
contributions for instance by taking on the role of interior designer in the renowned architecture
practice of her husband elliot molly read noise was closely associated on such large corporate
projects as headquarters for ibm xerox mobile and westick house not to mention an executive
jet interior although she was given ex an impressive workspace in his professional office
eerily vacant in its illustration in a recent monograph on noise shown here
the actual work of read noise is scarcely documented the noise children remember the
ongoing animated architectural discussions of their parents and they credit their mother with
an inferential incisive eye but they point with difficulty to the work she actually produced
perhaps because her involvement in domestic design was all-encompassing she collaborated in
the design of the family's new canaan connecticut house and worked with corporate clients in the
noyes office while also taking responsibility for entertaining them in the couple's home
the house itself was an advertisement but it was not just the building that was on display
for potential clients read noise orchestrated an entire experience that extended from architecture
to design to lifestyle she was critical to the success of her husband despite having spoken with
the noise children about the work of their parents we have yet to locate a single document of the
extensive production of weed noise when we asked her son about it he insisted that she was only an
adjunct his favorite word to his famous father and that she never put pencil to paper with the
implication that our work is not only invisible but inconsequential while the garage failing
archive of elliott noise is destined for a public collection when we ask the sum what physical
documentation there is for the work of his mother he pointed to a throw pillow in contrast a noy's
daughter herself a graphic designer described how her parents were so jointly engaged in design
that it was nearly impossible to separate their individual contributions as much as she believed
in her mother's involvement in design however the daughter could not identify a single piece of work
in contrast to weed noise victorian dupont homsey was acknowledged in her own time
as the principal designer in the firm she formed with her husband eldon in wilmington
delaware as with raymond amber publications document the firm's extensive practice
in modern architecture starting in the 1930s and while many of its drawings and correspondence
have been transferred to the hagley museum and library in wilmington a trove of unprocessed
documentation survives in their office building an essentially unorganized collection of photographs
many by robert de fills the back corner of the office the family also holds everything
done associated with the firm including her student drawings correspondence and artwork
among these are watercolors from their trip to mexico in the 1930s our discovery of this work
is significant because like many other americans of the period the cambridge school graduates were
keenly interested in mexico the liver uh excuse me when raymond and power traveled
to mexico the live erupts rhapsodizing letters home about the simple and colorful adobe forms
they passed on their impressions to other alumni such as louise leland and her partner
ambrose holdeman whose correspondence with them about their itinerary
is in the historical society in louisville kentucky where they had set up practice
although ann holly little a department store heiress lived most of her life at cleveland
the drawings of her student and early work are closely held in philadelphia
by her architect son sam little whom we were able to win over after a year of dogging him on email
and now sympathetic to our effort he has used his own office to produce digital copies for us
including ones of the modern house she designed for family members while working
in the cambridge office of perkins while there she met her husband robert a little an inveterate
modernist from harvard who was so impressed with her talent and undoubtedly her social position too
that they married them not long after he assisted her on her airplane to survey the
property the family property where just going to build this house and this is his um sketch
i don't know where my pointer is um on the upper right-hand corner that we just found last week
when we went to cleveland and poured through a bunch of stuff that's his sketch of her um
flying them over this property that they were going on which she was going to build
um though their practice was interrupted by war and also the birth of a child in 1946 they
collaborated on the design for the much publicized smith college dormitory competition sponsored by
the museum of modern art and pencil points for when which they won an honorable mention since
then however the position of hallie little in the form of robert a little and associates
is ambiguous in spite of her obituary that she claims that she that claims that she built models
designed interiors and furniture and photographed projects and this is a belated image of the smith
college competition though the sizable and well organized archive for robert little is in the
cleveland public library and additional papers are held by the cleveland architecture foundation
we discovered on a recent trip to cleveland that there are only several indirect clues about the
collaboration of haley little with her husband for example only a small sketch of the four partners
in a brochure of their design service business confirms her involvement another indication of her
participation is a photograph seen on the right of an urban redevelopment exhibition model in
which hallie little is front and center among the people who worked on it similarly a life magazine
article about their own house the first in a small but distinguished pepper ridge development
they spearheaded with two other couples illustrates a drawing by robert little with him
at a drafting table and her at the photographic enlarger and there's a circle there on the right
while his archive is in public collections hers is still in the file drawers of her home
office even though the house was so old three years ago
although hallie little possessed a master's degree in architecture which robert did not
and despite visual evidence that she contributed to his practice her work is largely imperceptible
and considered unimportant sam little uh seen here on the left suggested that we communicate
with the family of his mother's best friend from the cambridge school libby campbell knapp
one of her daughters is a busted socialite with no records and no interest in her mother's work
the other phoebe who you see here is a sculptor herself and a rancher in billings montana
deeply inspired by her mother she retains her book collection models photographs and
drawings as well as plans of the house she built for the family in princeton new jersey
end of the house she designed for her grandparents in new mexico although kendall
knapp eventually gave up architecture to run the family's massive wheat farms
in montana and new mexico the pride in her working career is vivid in the surviving archive
and here's the full model of the house that's in the archive and there are
numerous photographs including the ones shown here are fragrant white rites falling water
that document visits by cambridge school students to recent modern buildings another photograph
of the house raymond built in 1931 for her sister rachel and belmont massachusetts provides visual
evidence of cambridge school interest in modernism even more of the drawings of the cambridge school
that campbell knapp made as a student illustrate the institution's embrace of modern architecture
in its industrial drafting way which you see in its current iteration on the right-hand side
and then in the drawing by criminal map in the center as well as as its respect for vernacular
architecture represented by the older house that was part of the complex as you see the
plan on the bottom left where there was a kind of typical 18th century house which they bought
with uh money provided by one of the alumni and then they connected to it this incredible drafting
way that's and then they built a kind of join between the two parts of the complex the cambered
school facilitated women forming indispensable networks during a period when they were largely
executed excluded from the male-dominated profession bringing them to light is crucial to
understanding how women architects worked around institutionalized sexism while at the same time
contributing to the impetus implementation of modernism in the united states thank you