Welcome to our Fire in the Library 2019. Today we're gonna have the Milka Bliznakov
research prize recipients and the Milka Bliznakov students research price recipient
giving us a little introduction about their proposal and their work in the archive. Do you
want to, would you like to introduce a little bit or.. I will say a few words about the prize. The
prize started some years ago and it may be obvious by the name of the prize but the prize is to honor
professor emerita Milka Bliznakov who is now deceased, but she started the IAWA
so that there would be more material available for history, so that research could be conducted
in the IAWA. We are still collecting things and we will hear and more about this as time goes on
and today we welcome two groups you might say because we have two prizes on an annual
basis to honor Milka Bliznakov. One is the international prize and you are a person
in the world and you apply for this and it's a three thousand dollar award to do research
in the IAWA. The student prize is restricted to the college, school of architecture + design
so all of you could apply later on this year for this prize, and it's a thousand dollars.
I think you'll get a nice glimpse we've done this Fire in the Library many times because
the researchers, the international researchers, come and they do some
of their research and they start to find out things and the Fire in the Library then
is an opportunity to talk about how their research goes and we started with the student prize then
It's a nice moment to have a small seminar
and for you all certainly so you gain an awareness a larger scope of
information that can become knowledge or to become knowledge that needs to be shared and accepted and
so today is a little in that nature of moving this information into the world of knowledge.
So we'll start a little in reverse order. I'll introduce two people to you that come
to us from the University Politechnic from Valencia in Spain. They are both faculty,
Dr. Eva Alvarez Isadoro and Dr. Carlos Gomez Alfonso.
They are faculty as I mentioned so in that way they are very interesting probably
that could be a whole another conversation but the prize that they were awarded was based on a
project of their proposal each individual can propose whatever project the only restriction
is that it is conducted in the IAWA. So their project is entitled "Pluralism and diversity in
the profession: women architects speaking Spanish at IAWA" so they are looking into that aspect then
Daniela Urazan and she has a rather provocative title and was awarded with the student research
prize, "The architecture of care: women architects and places in need." She quotes I don't know if
they mention it again Diana Smith in the beginning of her proposal, "you need to question what or who
architecture is for." We thought we'd start with Daniela and then the one with Eva and Carlos.
And congratulations, we're so happy to have
you here. [Applause]
So each is going to give up maybe a 15-minute
introduction of their of their work and their some of their findings and curiosities etc
and then we're going to open it up at the end so they're going to present 15 minutes
each and then we're going to open it up for questions and answers on the conversation.
In the following years we'll face unprecedented challenges. Climate change, rapid population
growth, and mass urban migration will strain our already burdened built environments. This crisis
will be mostly allocated in fragile places that lack the infrastructure to deal with rapid change
leaving hundreds of individuals is stranded in a cycle of poverty.
Architecture is often blamed for catering to a privileged one percent which causes a disregard
of its responsibility to the other 99 percent those who arguably need it the most
thus i invite you to question and argue for the role of architects in places of need
in hopes of bringing light to the stories of the architects who have dedicated their life's work
to helping others the research of the archive and elsewhere will focus on the contributions
and personal viewpoints of women that exemplify the architecture of care the
stories of dispassionate women whose work has taken place differently but with equal value
around the world our call for action for future generations
of and serve architects a reminder that we must act as architects but also as caring human beings
this information will be gathered in the form of a book which will be published online to
broadcast the works of the IAWA to a broader audience in order to reveal the unique ways that
the profession can generate change the research focuses on four women from different time periods
and locations who have impacted the built environment in various ways either through
traditional practice education policy and or published work among other unique examples
each case study will be include will include a biography of the architect accompanied by
an analysis of her work and a commentary on the value of that application for us
or the future generations lastly if possible a transcript of an interview on the architecture
of care will be included this will be an interview conducted between the women architect and myself
to further the conversation by providing depth to the files of the archive
the first woman Diana Lee Smith was born in England in 1940 she graduated as an
architect from the architectural association school of architecture in London in 1964
and later was awarded her doctorate degree in architecture and development at London university
she has been an architecture professor for various universities both in Canada and in Kenya
and is the co-founder of the Messenger institute where she works until this day she has published
various pieces of work which have brought to light the issues that burden Africa
the Messenger institute seeks to integrate knowledge and practice
to further the civil society of Kenya in topics of refuge inequality famine and transportation
one of our contributions is to the settlements intervention networks of Africa cine specifically
in its creation and as the editor of the newsletter each one of these newsletters
was handed out to people who had not access to internet but who were working already in
different projects to help Africa move forward
another is our contribution to the right to the workshops of the cena institute
for which she created and worked in the administration of these events of gathering
people together to work and study specific issues in apps in Kenya and also in other areas of Africa
another word another part of her work is actually the rainbow magazine which is part
of the messenger institute this magazine was meant as a way to create further the idea of self-help
in children she created the comics for each one of the magazines which deal with difficult topics but
offer an education that is practical for those who cannot access those information in any other way
this is further developed by the idea of creating research that is then taught to children
and further applied through the idea of competitions
and as you can see it actually worked children responded to the magazine
and were awarded books to further their education and move the idea of self-help in Kenya and abroad
additionally her work
with the women and children network for which she was a co-founder
and also the editor of the magazine that they used showcases an architecture of care not only
for those who can afford architecture but also for women and for children
maria vanderweapon was born in Poland in 1952. she studied architecture at the technical university
of dance in poland and continued her studies at the oslo school of architecture and design in 1979
she moved to berlin and started her practice in 1984. her focus being the reconstruction
of structures damaged by war while encompassing historic buildings neighborhoods and new housing
here i showed you some documents of the architect that showed her work
and lastly the images of the reconstruction of a historical structure in potsdam
that show a clear dedication to aiding a broken nation
gislander madness was born in lusan switzerland
in 1942 and in 1967 she graduated from the polytechnic university of lusan
in 1969 she furthered her studies by going to the harvard graduate school of design and further on
with a master of science in urban planning from columbia university her work deals deeply with
the urban environment of harlem through design and policy and she has also become a voice of
the united nations she's a renowned activist for change in harlem of which she is an example
and still there is a focus on education as this project was conducted with her students
it's a study of how a new building can create an identity for the district of harlem
in addition she has been a member of the architects renewal commitment
committee of harlem that has dealt with key issues in the district
since 1986 she has been conducting the city college architectural center which seeks to put in
process and architecture of care as well as with her other publications such as the one shown here
which was further with the united nations later on lastly analyze was born in 1971.
velez graduated from the architectural association school of architecture in london in 1992
but her social work in colombia is renowned both nationally and internationally
she has housed more than 2000 individuals and continues to be a voice of change as an educator
and practicing architect velez exposes an intentional architecture of care
through her design work which seeks to dignify the user through its execution
in the residential realm as shown in this competition titled the intermediate
space are some of her images of her work for which there is a clear decision
to house people that may not have the means but do so in a dignified way
the architecture of care is a topic that relates to all of us
and should take precedence for our practice of architecture
this research highlights different ways that as architects we can change the built environment
and demonstrates that caring is not weakness
but rather one of the most powerful enactors of change thank you
what's up
hi good afternoon or good evening i never made clear with that in english i beg your pardon
because uh due to our english i hope if you do not understand what we are saying please ask
because we want to make it understable but it's not easy for us to speak in a different language
first of all we didn't understand uh this talk as a we were going to tell you what we have been
studying researching or what we have been finding we are going to talk about some findings but
this is not the main mission we wanted to to talk to you to show how important we think is
researching on archives on good archives like yours
when we arrive we saw this post there we were really happy and honored to be here
it was coming from spain and in my age knowing the iawa archive it was like a kind of present
being here to research on women architects no need to say we are both feminists and you should
uh i i don't know to speak shortly so when this finished the lead
carlos and me are like both architects and teachers at the university
of polytechnic university in valencia and we met there when we were studying and we got married
we got married and still i married and researching so it has been not so long we don't know how long
and from the beginning we are feminists of course no i said no need to say
this is our names our small office where we work as an architect the university where we work
and our personal data if someone needs to find us in some way it's going to be here but we do
more things than researching and studying and working and this has been said this has been a
constant in some way daniela said taking care of other persons taking care of ourselves is
a way we are always thinking about if we see all our life like nina bobardi
did in this wonderful exhibition in sao paulo looking all the time at the same time
we can see that we do things that make some payment to us like teaching or working as
an architect and many other things a lot of things that we do we do not get payment
normally that are not acknowledged by curricula or academics or so on
and in some way research is inside this part usually in spain uh what we do because we want
um but we have common term garden
we have been researching on women architecture we entering this website
uh you can see all the work we have been doing from 19 sorry from 2015 until now we okay
we have been inviting the lord hiding madagascar
because we want that in our university a feminist approach could be
thought as a scientific approach not only activism we make by a way of doing research
if you want to enter i will the information is there and we have to change academics
uh we have been invited twice susana torre that is one of the persons we have been
researching these days joe freeman that is north american feminist that have been
changing the way we look at feminism as a way of understanding yes missionaries from london
uh different groups of architects in france that have different prices and so on different articles
now we have an activism way of looking research we are we do not only research because it is a need
in academic life that of course it is but we research because we are convinced that we have to
try to change where we are at university in in the professional realm see
if you want to review some in this in english so you can hear this here why an archive
that after the conversation with paola we were thinking that the best thing one
could have is a library and then an archive and then traveling if you have if you get that
you have knowledge because when you get a book you got you get the interpretation someone has made
on data and when you get the archive you have the data you are able to if you are trained
to make your own interpretation sometimes when you make phd thesis and so on you get
the the most important part is the interpretation
you make but with time probably the most important part is the part of the archive you have rescued
to make it visible and in the case of women in the case of women architects that's really important
you know that barocco or renaissance is the history of this part of the architecture
is made by a very prepared student and men in england here maybe in london and
they have erased they are not interested in the history of the women it's a good
interpretation in his interpretation but they have erased a part of the history and
excuse me my english if you study in the history of the architecture
wrote documents are not in these books it's only one interpretation to wonderful interpretation but
only apart it's of in the case of the women architect is in so important to go to the
documents to go to the architects women architects we have been researching before that on schools in
spain and we we went to the archives and we found even women we always are feminists and activists
we are always looking for women there we could realize of these open schools school in barcelona
in the 30s it was the teacher with the but this is a original photo you may see you can see the
framing the framings to the book or we were researching also in school we could find all
these material and we could think about that not only the interpretation someone has made
in spain that after we had a detector detectorship
of course my mother couldn't do anything like before spanish civil war
if you have the document you are always free to
interpret that on your own idea of things so you have to train your mind and have the document um
so we came here to yahweh that's wonderful you have a wonderful archive very clean i
was telling last night that it was so clean and so organized and a very kind people inside inside i'm
beginning a tech everywhere that it was hockey's everywhere everywhere for example what we have
been doing these days uh that posted we have been researching on that when we were making our phd
uh and we have seen some persons send send those posters to us by email but now we could take it
there and we could see the originals they draw two meters plan and have it there and other persons
have been working on that and we could touch it and see and carlos making photos in in a week we
have made a thousand photos one thousand photos and carlos love me and also take me photos and
they post there and when you are near you realize different things of course in their small photos
we could see that but it's not the same that they have drawn all the sky and in some way
that make us think of that we are you know i know you don't know i'm from the canary islands i
maybe you know that is the best one of the best best heaven one of the sky one
first hemisphere one of the best hawaii chile and canary islands canary island and we are used to
look at the skies very nice looking sorry what is best chile and canary islands than hawaii and
um but this is maybe what you can see in some way but this is what you can see if you have the
instruments in some way in entering the archive is a way of looking at what you do not know and you
need the instruments intellectual and physical to achieve knowledge or to take information for
example this is a photo carlos made in in notting canary islands but it could be in canary islands
or for example what is um everyone can see this uh situation at this time but if you
have the technical and the time and the work you can see something this one is the same place
and so this is like an archive if you don't go to the archive with the really clear instrumental is
you are doing nothing or not too much or not too much but not too much you may enjoy the night
well uh so in la palma the different instruments one of these that is so beautiful
because this is not for looking at the sky they are x-rays you know astronomers go to a telescope
in hawaii and every everywhere in the world and usually they go a week two weeks and they are
taking information taking information they don't know if the information is quite good or
quite fine they come back to their institutions everywhere in the world and then they are working
about one or two years with this information so no no no continue uh in some way we have been
these days harvesting information here at the archive we really don't know how good we hope
that is really good but we do not know how good and how we can manage to organize this information
taking good knowledge or good influences about from this work so we have been taking plans
uh reviewing all work of course that so kindly offered by the personal working at the archive um
reviewing uh taking photos of all of the material
and we were reviewing spanish speaking women argued at i i a w a
i don't know why you don't say yahwah it's easier
yeah our proposal was women i couldn't speak in spanish atiawa at i at the archive but susana
torre told me that saying the name of the research so we will try what we have found we really don't
know but we have been reviewing work of diana valmoy that was a landscape architect working
in new york from cuba there are two pockets from cuba eliana cardenas and analoof campana
but they have only that there is not too much inside from the cuban architects from mexico
there is luke maria palestine there are only one piece of a very interesting piece from of planning
and coming from spain calming spechel who has been here several times and had the final project
that she did when he finished her studies or karma pinots that has only this booklet not more
or christina graud who is who was a valenciana women architect that died
some days ago some years ago and only have some magazines or journals
with the work she did but not original work so for we wanted to introduce
before coming more that for us is important you know that even we speak bad english like me
english make us possible to connect different places and everyone should learn english no
no need to mention that but different languages are different way of thinking and in some way
if you hear heidegger when say that thinking lives in the language when you use words
you are thinking in different way so if we are feminist an activist and asking for
pluralism and diversity we should try to improve the demographics or the
different persons who are inside the archive so we propose to increase the quantity of women
speaking in spanish or different languages we use spanish because you have to frame your research
but different language not only english and we have watched that when people coming from
english-speaking countries research they only cite quote english researches not
all over the world researchers and there are a lot of research done in different languages
with different approach that we should enjoy so we thought that this archive that is um
a goal the targets for many persons should include more persons coming from different oils
i'm not i think time is over now we have for example we were really happy when we found that
that was the first um survey that people in 1970 73 sent to the architects to be fulfilled uh to
begin the archive in the in the first the not the international but the archive of women architect
and we have found it in the highland hallway i was sent by susanna torre
the legislative work of power plays that i haven't seen before this map with all of this work even we
have a publication we have that several times or of course the biggest part of this part of
the archive are the susana torre work that we knew before but we didn't know uh these houses
that we found so of course from the moment the eighties were they were made and we have to
research on that that they are not so well known oh which is the future the future iu
of course last day we were talking with your colleagues we were having a hamburger
and we were delighted to know that many persons and many men also are involved in
researching on women architects and to spread the word on how to work on original material
to have your own vision not division of father your ambition on the way so thank you so much
so we're gonna this is an informal gathering so don't be afraid to ask questions um you're welcome
to ask questions amongst yourselves but also jump in and have a conversation about the work
that's used when you went and asked when did you start
thinking about researching women specifically
long time ago
maybe when we finish our studies we have been always interested in gender approach
of the approach to care on women and excuse me in that moment we don't know that
our point of view of two approach for approach in is named a gender approach we know this maybe 15
years ago when in europe german architects or and austria architects women architects
they they developed this name but we are working in targets of gender approach to the project
maybe since we finished since we finished at the middle of nineties there is a
link way of doing because when you are interested in gender approach and feminism finally you
realize that you haven't been taught in any women architect when you are studying so you say
what happens now women were important enough to show their work and you say okay
let's try to see how many women in spain or how many women in europe or in u.s i've been working
and you'll find that there are wonderful work a lot of work is okay we have to make it
visible but if you want to have a date this makes clear position from 2010
or more or less more or less we have been researching on that but it's always linked
it's not we move from gender approach to architecture to feminism or to women like
um for me it was a lot just because of the
the club like the iwa and i had not realized that there was such a gap in our own like information
and once i went into the archive it became very clear that we're the ones that are
missing out on it and that if there's a way to expose that information and have
a conversation about it then we might realize something for ourselves after we graduate
um what changes do you think you would see in the field of architecture if more people embraced
oh more people should embrace feminism and
i always speak sorry i i i want a total chain of social organization
i i don't know how broad or how much but for example if you think the role we as architects
have now is all day working maybe you know that you have to work all the hours you are asleep
slept to succeed in your profile but that could be because men that were the ones who made that
had all the other things that i needed to live all done they didn't they hadn't to thinking
having meals they haven't thinking cleaning their clothes you are not able to go to ask for a job if
you are not clean and you have to eat you have to do different things so um this the whole society
not only women should ask their right to take care of ourselves of our persons who are close to us
our land our tradition of different things that we could embrace so if you do that you are not able
to work 18 or 16 hours every day that is insane in my opinion so if feminism or call it how you want
i don't know caring options or architecture of care or gender approach or activism
good would generalize in the whole society the profi the professional profile should change
because it is impossible to do everything and in my opinion and his opinion is i hope
when people who are taking decisions live real life take better decisions and they are more
sustainable and they are more efficient that if the people who are thinking about
how organized in schools do not take their kids to school and do not know what happened in school
and you have to take as architects and professionals you have to take a lot of decisions
that affect the real life of real persons that you do not know how they live so if you live
more or less how they live maybe you are able to take better decisions and i'm not asking
that only for a question of justice i am asking also for a question of a better society for all
of us not only women you know for example three examples of women architect you know the work of
tennessee scott brown maybe and the work of jane drew maybe you know maxwell fry or
walter gropius well but no much people in schools of architecture know jane drew the role in jane
drew and it's a very important architect and he drew develop or dancescore brown developed
is a kind of women role with in all her life in the other situation in with a very good job
don't i'm i'm don't i don't i i don't want to tell you that it's a bad job no it's for
example sahaja did the role of zaha hadid is the role of um men architecture because
she is only making architecture as a man she hasn't she haven't changed the rules
she has get the men rule it's very difficult different than jane drew or dennis scott brown
that's a whole response sorry star system is you know star system in architecture
maybe a wrong way for a gender approach because is the perfect way to demand rules
so sorry if i understand your
english is not my first language too so
i was wondering so you i imagine you were saying that when we are talking about women
in architecture we are now we are not only talking about a representation of the group that have been
like not represented but also there is a new kind of architecture that we are talking about
i just wanted to see further for for myself like i'm trying to come up with an example
of how the influence of how a woman architect how that like obviously like woman architecture looks
like like can you maybe provide an example of how i think it's quite difficult and quite simple
as we are
in is usually in women architects see that the target are the users the main target when
you include all the users in the architecture this may be the first the second and the third
step to gender approach and if you are including all the users the architecture change
notice an architecture to be photographed only it's for living and and maybe so
modern so exciting so uh contemporary it's possible but it's not excluding architecture
maybe the the first clear step that we in some way when we talk we are always in the same
round thinking about that for example and many persons tell me do you think there is a different
architecture coming from a woman or coming from man pink buildings something like that no
if if you are telling me genetically women produce different architecture than men no
no but traditionally and correct me if not women have been taking care even the sakha hadid have
been taking care of someone because we have been training that way i don't know why but we
have been training that way and the present moment at the present moment women working
take care of someone not too much or not too less i don't know but women take care and have it taken
care of other and i expected to take care of others and at the moment is a condition that
changed the point of view to architecture at the moment i'm not saying that oh sorry
i'm not saying that is because they are women i'm saying that is because they are taking care
because they are taking care and in some way for example carlos is a man and he has always been
taking care of our common kids or our house and has the same problems as me as a woman architect
because you are not able to work 16 hours every day because you are at five because kids are
out this school at seven or in spain we have dinner ten o'clock you have to take you have
to have dinner uh to have dinner you have you need food to need to have food you have to buy
and uh there are different things that you have to do and when you do that something changes
for example in the day by day targets for women who takes care conduced to
the sustainability because uh it's a better world i don't know if i'm telling okay say okay
let's understand it's just but no one
talks about women architects uh have a target in sustainability because it's inside
so if i want to break my question
uh an architecture as feminism as an agenda is a different architecture of course from the one that
doesn't have the agenda
we
is uh in some way i think it has because when when you have an activism and you are aware
of problems in the world maybe um you think more in things when for example if you are
feminist maybe you prefer a more healthy environment for everybody so maybe you should
build smaller buildings and using low carbon techniques or low energy techniques a man could
have of course the same i'm not telling you that it's a question of men or women i'm telling is a
question of position and activism and in some way women have shown clearly this activism and
for example women usually are pedestrians
because in the houses when there is only one car the car is always driven by the men and women
usually are pedestrians because more than more than men because and they usually make shorter
ways than men who come from men or women who come from home to work and from work to home so if you
spread the idea of people taking care of others maybe more people could be pedestrians saying that
in the usa we have seen that is very difficult because you drive for everything but uh if you uh
make bikes markers maybe are more main bikers than women bikers if you analyze what is happening
you can take decisions and you can think more on the uh i think the the is that the idea is
knowledge in women make they take inside the project more variables and this is the
main clear thing if you everyone take all these variables maybe
the same architecture women and men but the experience expressed clearly
in reviews books and history that men usually take out what they don't want to put inside
as a decision or usually as uh not known variable this is the the way yeah i agree completely
like with my research i guess from the very beginning i was questioning that idea of
is this going to be really in favor of like an idea of an architecture of women
and it's not it's the idea that because women usually are the ones that are supposed to care
they have that already ingrained in the way of thinking like you and
um that's why they are examples and that's why it's a book for anyone it's because
like it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman as long as you're a person and you have ethics
then maybe you should care but it's not a question about women per se it's sometimes many persons ask
me if i can define how women architecture is and of course it's impossible because it's not
in a perfect world where everyone are equitable will have the same opportunities and the same way
of thinking we do not find any difference for taking a different architecture for any point
of view we are not arguing that we are saying that people taking care of others usually women
look at reality in a different way that is what daniela has said and there's another kind of
no justice maybe there's no difference i i i'm
sure there is a difference of all uh she has told us but all of
uh but the first step in other way is know know what archite women architects has done and compare
and we don't know you should usually we don't know
and we don't have references we must study i think it's a
target of justice for the architecture
are we always fighting with that
okay um transformation years as a faculty and as a student
what do you think the future kind of role of higher education
the player has to play in kind of disseminating this language to a newer generation um i always
expect the best from the younger persons i always prefer being with a younger person than
with the older ones always always because they are the future and we always expect the best to come
not always we are so hopeful because sometimes we see something that is going backwards not only
ahead but in some way you are the future so yes things are what we want to they are
if you if sometimes when we are speaking if every year we have more or less
60 or 70 students at our classes our like you if we could change the mind of 10 each year we
will change the city of valencia or two or two or three we would change so i guess we do not change
because it hasn't changed i don't argue with you in this opinion if you look at the
historical results of the architect schools usually better students are women or
or i think in this moment in europe in spain our top students are women or most of all and
if you study 10 years later more of her doesn't
work in a little school near valencia that is very i can't a little town er two years ago they make
its training anniversary and they want to take one architect
for in each year of the 20 years of the history of this school and in 20 years
they have more women architects than men but only they could find a published work in a year from
women the other 19 were men more girls more women go home or go left work in architecture and
disappear and this this must change but i i always positive i think that we could change that yeah
and changing that demands that men involved in the change and men demand their right to care
because it's a right taking care of others because i don't know how we can live without taking care
taking care of the world not only the person for the world yes and in this moment where we are all
worried about climate change i think that is really important
because if you take you realize of the problems and you are able to see what is happening around
you and when you take professional decisions you have more data you are more sensitive to the data
to take professional decisions correct and professional decisions as we
know i'm not saying that activism is all you you need training and you need knowledge but
your point of view is important to use this knowledge and this training the history is always
similar and the first step to know the future is know well the past and the best way to know
the past is study in the first documents take talk with the protagonist the person
protagonist the women protagonist and history is a tool for an instrument for the future
and you should every one of us should study the history do you think this is a tremendous
opportunity for architecture let me just ask him question so you're an architect of a school
so you're producing plans section elevation classrooms do you think it's needed maybe
a drawing that shows how the children in that school so that school is on a property
how the children in that school walk home which means go across the property line and that's
presented along with all the other things you know i might take courage on the part of the profession
because they're saying well we're not paid enough to make that other drug i think that's important
to change the practice to make the process yeah this is including more targets more variable
we are working now in valencia in castellon that is found very near valencia on how introducing
gender ministry in planning and urban design urban design more than planning because they have
realized we all have realized that when you take care of what is happening to people living in the
city i you can produce a better urban environment or better buildings or better better environments
that's what we want to say so we usually intro we have one price because we convince
we we do not do that we convince the person who are going to do that to take into account
not only the rich part of the city but all the whole city the person who live in the borders
the problems they have making better public transport for them not only
for the ones who are living in the center city center taking care of
the elders that sounds normal but you have to put it on the plants and you have to say how and
it was so wonderful because we were working with the team that they were pre-convinced
and we convinced so much that we they invited new way of assessing urban goals and the way
they were changed so i think we need to change the profession because the profession is still living
in the 30s that when in the world where 2 000 million persons only when i think when i teaching
and i think okay when the conviction was alive there was only two thousand million person but
you know like you said no no uh elin gray no he didn't know and when the in the 50s the smithsons
were thinking about the city there were only 4 000 million persons billion you say billion here
four billion here and now we are seven billion the the magnitude of the question is so different
that we have to change our models and we continue using urbanism and architecture from the 30s
and it's good to know and it's good to use it but if it works not always works and you have to
involve more more variables that's what's carlo's saying what donna has wish uh questions asked i
i think more plans more variables it's is mapping everything it's needed and we're more public yeah
everywhere everywhere because when you talk about valencia for example someone thinks
in calatrava and we are not saying that precisely because there are huge monuments
for rich persons in this sense not useful and that maybe someone could find beautiful we do not but
that's not the question uh the question is that taking this huge quantity of money for doing that
is taking off where it is needed and it is needed more spread in the in the land so
some way urbanism and politics are the same urbanism is a kind of policy so by studying
the work of women architects we're closer to getting to an architecture of inclusion
to kind of reach those who don't have the means to take care of themselves
at the moment it is so because um as i was saying um
if if you take care of kids or you take care of your parents or you take care of your pets i don't
mind you have a real sense they need something they need they have needs that you have to
you have to follow what they they need so you are more conscious and you feel more
real than if you are only thinking in numbers when you i i i love hannah and
and hannah and that is a woman philosopher maybe you know
it was a a woman philosopher you is in the nazi ale mania in germany
and she was always saying that when you are in the abstract part of the thinking everything is
beautiful you can change everything because you are thinking in abstract when you go and you say
okay not all the people you heard me have this problem you see the the thing in a different way
so in some way i'm not telling that women are perfect and men are horrible no we are
thinking that people who take care usually women but only men also men
look at reality in a different way so they are they feel more close to the poor the
weak or the persons in need they feel neatly near and when you are thinking you imagine in an um
high office in a high government part of the government thinking about numbers
they are changing your life but they are not feeling close to you and they are not thinking
about what is going to happen and even though they are women they take the same decisions it's always
said that architects may open eyes and the mind it's this is the this is the way to the persons in
need that the the hair research i'm not saying i'm not letting her to talk sorry but her research is
really important but he's so showing how i could explain as architects and working as architects
i am doing their work in a different way and where we are asking us all together how to change the
profession and all if some kind in the world in the world changes tools in the work may change
always like plants or the way we show implants uh what is happening or the way we analyze the the
history of the people of the world is the history of the tools you know
this is like here sentence that's nice
oh i'm convincing you to begin to be active
it's a really wonderful way of talking about the subject
because you know for it's easy to to go toward a granting or a competition between men and women
and this opens it up in such a such a great way
first in understanding that there needs to be a great awareness of
everybody so that this just continues to improve um but the other as you were saying that it's not
because it's women but because of the role of women we are trained to
care and the care brings a different dimension to architecture and so if we're only publishing work
of uh of men we're missing dimensions of architecture not only examples and role models
but we're also missing dimensions of architecture that just make architecture better so i think it's
a really wonderful i never seen it this way one of the questions i was about to ask at the beginning
and i know that it could be problematic if you could define feminism uh or how do you think
of feminism because you know i think that it's misunderstood you know the same as when we talk
in architecture about you know feminism that many people think it's just a sexist thing
no no it's not the same as we have you know talked about the archive it's not
about the women it's about architecture yeah it's about you know
allowing architecture to have all its richness and all its dimensions
and do you want the definition of feminism from no no i hope not
when joe freeman freeman came to valencia she was a feminist you know very activist in the
uh the 70s and she told things that i didn't expect because she said that in the 70s and maybe
in the 80s maybe women have acknowledged or gained the the right to work no one is thinking now that
women couldn't work but men haven't demand their right to care because when men for example carlos
want to take care of kids because they are ill or something that is very difficult to ask permission
society understand that woman has permission not to go to work because they have to take care
but society do not understand that a man is not going so i i in some way feminism or it's a total
change of society i i tell for everybody uh it's not only a fight between women and men that of
course it could be because we have been studying architecture 400 years without mentioning women
and we could but we are not asking for that we don't want that we want a new
redefinition of how people relate each other and equity and taking care of not being sober
stress every day to what for and what are we going to do with all the money we are going to
or to do in some way feminism as i see and i think as carlos maybe daniela c
is not a question of women against men it's a question of a part of society that takes care
with others as part of the society that is not taking care and we are suffering now because this
kind of society has made many harms around social harms technological harms environmental harms
and we think that this should change and in this way feminism is a way for achieving that
but of course we are not asking to kill all the men no no no no no i need to
finish them nothing nothing similar or not taking care of their weight it's
on other way we want to take care of the work doing by men but please more questions
something we
a woman hero and this idea we're talking about gender roles right you think about generals
like whether it's difficult or or subconscious and conditions like we happen in our society
and um you're a woman and you work 60 hours a week and you take care of your house and you
clean and you cook and you take care of your kid you're a hero but if and for the man doing his job
um a man does his if he cooks and he cleans their hero and really we shouldn't be heroes
we should just all be the same thing i recently read an article called i'm not a woman architect
and so getting rid of that label of we should all just be that caring person an empathetic person
and whether it's an age or not be taught in higher education or in any education but just all being
of that having that same value as a human being is what i got out of our conversation it is yes
well step by step must change you know for example you you know that in in 1975
in switzerland women canned boats couldn't vote in switzerland no in
in this little country in a rich part of the world in center of uh europe it's uh yesterday
for me and it changed it changed in that year well go on we we must change that women every day or
must be a kind of hero day by day
but how does that happen because really you live in a world and
so we're blind to this this is what's amazing to me we live in a world where
each of us probably has two buildings that we've occupied except one building reacted right now
the other one maybe obviously at least it's eight hours so maybe it's
16. there are two buildings for each of us there's seven parking spaces five a car in this country
there's seven parking spaces in this town for that park so somehow we have this moment and we
need to really embrace it that's beautiful because we go on our way through talking about reading an
article i don't i've never read a book about this her name is anne patchett she's an american writer
and i know the name but not foreign and she's written a lot of books she's very successful often
she grew up and i don't know her circumstances she had to take care of her
grandmother totally and she said it was ruling work yeah it was so much of a birthing on her to
take care of her grandmother but she looks back she took care of this woman who has lost her
mind she thinks of how wonderful that was about home in her life of that period and it was not a
short time it was 13 so she wrote a recent book and she said she sat down in the middle of the
floor and she thought the main character in the book was a woman who had children
and this woman left her family to go for a cause a greater good than her and she
sat on the floor and she said this was an answer to a question someone asked
she sat before and she thought let me think about all the women who live on my street would they
leave their children to go for this call this very good house and she said no they would come here
yeah you said in spain for instance because of the corruption there's a
lot of competitions of so many people too many people entering
what's the possibility now what's the possibility for us now
to make a difference because part of the problem is some people are quite comfortable
yeah probably in the architecture profession the people working it might be long hours
it pays you back something for the money so it's wonderful yes but we are quite
do you make a um without someone pulling a rug
but i i think when when i think on that that you are of course right uh i think that we all have
the possibility of meditating on making a change small changes small changes small team but all of
us have this possibility and sometimes things do not change because we are comfortable trying to
achieve that this idea of success we have been taught that we have to achieve and sometimes okay
i'm working so many hours for example dolores hayden wrote the
perfect piece in the 80s that was what would a non-sexy city be like
what would a non-sexist city be like in the 80s and because the problem is always the same
where you live where you work and who take care
of kids or parents and so you you have to combine these three pieces always
always and it's very easy not to take care for example you do not take care of no one uh you
you take one piece you always have to think of where you live and where you work if you are rich
maybe you live near where you work so no worries about that but many persons are not able to choose
normally women are not so able to choose where to live but to work on how to take of people around
so each of us for example in spain for taking care of kids when you go to work you have to
badly pay to have an immigrant who hasn't no papers that's bad you we all know but many
persons do that and we are exploiting another person for you to go to work you are liberating
but you are producing harm in another person so we all should balance what we are doing in our
daily life to see how we could make a change small change in that if many persons do that something
would change i of course we prefer global changes but also make me fear because global changes are
manageable you don't know what is going to happen with global change but small changes are easy to
control in many ways i feel like as students we often think that our profession is going to be a
straight line and that there are no many options because we never really talk about the options
and when i was first looking at the set of women i was just surprised of
how different their lives were and it was a choice that they made to follow this instinct they had to
either move to kenya for the rest of their lives to work until they're like 80 years old and still
continue to work and answer emails of students who are wondering about questions of their own work
of places that they haven't even heard of and it's interesting to think that they're also architects
we also have that opportunity of changing our own life and defining our life as a way to leave
a legacy and i think often we just showcase like this very specific way of doing the profession the
traditional practice and that that is the best way but maybe maybe it's not and we have the
opportunity to ask that of ourselves and see if maybe we are we can make a change in focusing in
some other way or change it while we're doing like traditional practice like maybe it's a way that
you change the way that you decide on the detail like maybe it's choosing to
add an extra bathroom for a person because you know that there's never enough bathrooms like
those type of decisions we can make ourselves and we have that power we just need to take it
but we are in a i agree with you actually we are in a college of architecture and we everyone
want to change the world i i hope we all want peace we want all to be rich or with no problems
but in architecture what can we do we can open your our mind we can take in the project
in our analysis and where we in what we work all the users is the first step for change the focus
in the users and we must study what women architect has have done this is in this
place we can do may do must do this no i i always believe that
huge changes begins with a small changes and we think our personal life we are all able to
take change for example like carlos was saying studying an archive and knowing the wake of um
sometimes when i saw activists and i speak in that way maybe you can say you can think that activism
supplies or everything no activism is a part you need to be well prepared well trained to learn
and to study but you can choose what you you study and the way you focus on your studies so
in this place with the archive i think is a great opportunity to make visible
a different way of doing that has been made by women but could be done by everybody and it's
with all things that is better for the world and we are in where you were making a project and
think about future users
it's the best way i think come to valencia visit us to the politics
look balancing google you will see there is wonderful place to to visit sunny and
beautiful we have we haven't a wonderful archive as you but it's a wonderful place
thank you so much it was a great conversation