ROME - Big names of women who have been able to impress their peculiar vision of the space built for social life have crossed the twentieth century and the first two decades of the new century. From pioneers to architectural stars, such as Signe Hornborg, the first woman in the world to graduate in Helsinki in 1890, or Zaha Hadid, the first professional to receive the Pritzker Prize in 2004. It is time to re-read the history of this particular field of creativity by broadening our gaze to the contribution that the female hand has given to the evolution of the design of public and private works, be they large infrastructures or individual homes, buildings, bridges, sports facilities or design pieces for everyday life. This is the journey that the MaXXi proposes with the exhibition 'Buone Nuove. Women in architecture ',curated by Pippo Ciorra, Elena Motisi, Elena Tinacci. Until next September 11, in the fascinating container designed by the brilliant Iraqi architect who died in 2016, the stories of 86 professionals flow, a choral story of the path taken by the other half of the category to free themselves from prejudices and assert themselves.
Few people know the name of Norma Merrick Sklarek, defined as the Rosa Parks of architecture, the first African American to have access to the profession in 1954, or Charlotte Perriand and Eileen Gray, icons of modernist design, or Ada Louise Huxtable, inventor over the years '60 by architecture criticism with his column in the New York Times and winner of the 1970 Pulitzer Prize. And the Italians? The first to represent them is the landscape 'pioneer' Maria Teresa Parpagliolo to reach the stories and materials of authors present in the collection of MAXXI Architettura directed by Margherita Guccione, such as Cini Boeri, Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo, Studio Labirinto, Elisabetta Terragni and others. To the stars of the contemporary scene, such as Elizabeth Diller and Kazuyo Sejima,flanked by young promises represented by Francesca Torzo and Lucy Styles, also included among the signatures present in the museum of the capital.
The exhibition, in the intentions of the curators, aims to represent the current international situation "by overcoming the stereotype of the great master, the undisputed head of the studio, in favor of a new geography of the profession in which the presence of women is becoming stronger and more authoritative". It is an "anthropological mutation that reflects a series of epochal changes in society and, consequently, in the role of architecture, which today is confronted with social and environmental issues, with technology, with activism for gender equality. and against all discrimination ".
Three themes at the center of attention. "The first - they explain - is the growing process of liberation of the professional world from prejudices and habits that have often held back the affirmation of women and other" non-standard "subjects (collectives, couples, open formations). The second concerns the the impression that the enlargement of the professional audience in the sense of gender equality contributes positively to the ability of architecture to respond to the urgencies of the present, especially in terms of ecological sensitivity, inclusiveness, social sustainability. The last point concerns Italy, where we find many women among the best emerging (or emerged) designers, as an advanced example of this transformation ". Impossible to mention the names of all. They go to Ada Louise Huxtable,Charlotte Perriand and Eileen Gray, pioneer and icons of contemporary design; to Phyllis Lambert and Lina Bo Bardi, among the most significant and revolutionary figures of the 20th century. The artistic nature emerges in the works of Elizabeth Diller, who presents the large metropolitan cultural space The Shed in New York at MAXXI, and in those of Mariam Kamara, a Nigerian architect nominated by the New York Times among the 15 Creative Women of Our Time. Craftsmanship and technological awareness interact in the works of the Lebanese Lina Ghotmeh; Anupama Kundoo, of Indian origin with a studio also in Berlin, presents a summary of her research on environmental and economic sustainability; Benedetta Tagliabue, head of the EMBT studio in Barcelona, exhibits the Spanish Pavilion for Expo 2010 in Shanghai.Environmental sustainability also characterizes the projects of Dorte Mandrup, founder of the Dorte Mandrup A / S studio in Copenhagen, active all over the world with a team of 75 people. Finally, they challenge the male professional model Jeanne Gang, head of Studio Gang in Chicago with offices all over the world, and Grafton Architects, a studio founded in Dublin in 1978 by Yvonne Farrel and Shelley McNamara that has climbed the top of world architecture . At the MaXXI today the exhibition "Cao Fei. Supernova 'also opened, curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta, the first Italian solo show dedicated to the Chinese artist among the most innovative and visionary of the contemporary scene, who with his works tells the transformations of society and metropolises of the Asian country.founder of the Dorte Mandrup A / S studio in Copenhagen, active all over the world with a team of 75 people. Finally, they challenge the male professional model Jeanne Gang, head of Studio Gang in Chicago with offices all over the world, and Grafton Architects, a studio founded in Dublin in 1978 by Yvonne Farrel and Shelley McNamara that has climbed the top of world architecture . At the MaXXI today the exhibition "Cao Fei. Supernova 'also opened, curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta, the first Italian solo show dedicated to the Chinese artist among the most innovative and visionary of the contemporary scene, who with his works tells the transformations of society and metropolises of the Asian country.founder of the Dorte Mandrup A / S studio in Copenhagen, active all over the world with a team of 75 people. Finally, they challenge the male professional model Jeanne Gang, head of Studio Gang in Chicago with offices all over the world, and Grafton Architects, a studio founded in Dublin in 1978 by Yvonne Farrel and Shelley McNamara that has climbed the top of world architecture . At the MaXXI today the exhibition "Cao Fei. Supernova 'also opened, curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta, the first Italian solo show dedicated to the Chinese artist among the most innovative and visionary of the contemporary scene, who with his works tells the transformations of society and metropolises of the Asian country.at the head of Studio Gang in Chicago with offices all over the world, and Grafton Architects, a studio founded in Dublin in 1978 by Yvonne Farrel and Shelley McNamara that has climbed the top of world architecture. At the MaXXI today the exhibition "Cao Fei. Supernova 'also opened, curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta, the first Italian solo show dedicated to the Chinese artist among the most innovative and visionary of the contemporary scene, who with his works tells the transformations of society and metropolises of the Asian country.at the head of Studio Gang in Chicago with offices all over the world, and Grafton Architects, a studio founded in Dublin in 1978 by Yvonne Farrel and Shelley McNamara that has climbed the top of world architecture. At the MaXXI today the exhibition "Cao Fei. Supernova 'also opened, curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta, the first Italian solo show dedicated to the Chinese artist among the most innovative and visionary of the contemporary scene, who with his works tells the transformations of society and metropolises of the Asian country.curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta, the first Italian solo show dedicated to the Chinese artist, one of the most innovative and visionary of the contemporary scene, who with his works tells the transformations of society and the metropolis of the Asian country.curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta, the first Italian solo show dedicated to the Chinese artist, one of the most innovative and visionary of the contemporary scene, who with his works tells the transformations of society and the metropolis of the Asian country.