Spanish architect, Carmen Espegel's work is embodied in three complementary areas: academic, research, and professional activity. Espegel was part of espegel-fisac arquitectos studio for twenty years as a founding partner and currently leads espegel arquitectos. Her research approach has focused mainly on housing, women in architecture, and architectural criticism.
In her book Women Architects in the Modern Movement, Espegel brings us a deep reading of the discipline by highlighting the presence of women architects. Focusing on four prominent architects in the Modern Movement —Eileen Gray, Lilly Reich, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, and Charlotte Perriand—, the book analyzes how the status of women throughout time, has not maintained a linear trajectory in the conquest of their rights. Heroines of Space invites us to understand history as a living element that is built from generation to generation, prompting new critical reviews of the past to help us vindicate those who have been veiled by the intellectual orthodoxy of each period. ?tag=arch05-20
We have spoken with Carmen Espegel about her book, originally published in Spanish, and soon to be translated into Italian and Korean.
Belén Maiztegui (BM): Why did you decide to write a book about women in architecture?
Carmen Espegel (CE): Actually, the book was commissioned by an editor because my doctoral thesis had a small chapter on the relationship between women and architecture. When I started researching it, I discovered an exciting world. It actually took me over five years, in addition to the work I had already developed during my doctoral thesis. In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Wolf said that we should write all kinds of books, that we should not be scared by any topic, trivial or important, and that is what I have done. These investigations are extremely important if we want to build a more equitable world. If we do not have previous references, then it is as if we did not have a past, as if we had never existed, which is very sad.
BM: In addition to their temporal contextualization and their integration within the Modern Movement, what other aspects would you say link them together?
CE: I focused on the world of modernity with Eileen Gray, studying in detail her wonderful Maison en bord de mer, E.1027. From that point, other heroines emerged, almost always linked to key figures of modernity, of whom we had heard. For example, when delving into Le Corbusier, the great Charlotte Perriand and her modern interior inevitably appeared. If we delve into the work of Mies van der Rohe, we discover that Lilly Reich was his partner in Berlin until she left for the United States. As I am interested in social housing, I discovered Grete Schütte-Lihotzky in Frankfurt am Main, who changed the quality of life of thousands of families with her integrated kitchen design, included in the monthly rent they paid. Perhaps the most surprising aspect in all of them is the link that exists between work and life. The boundaries between one and the other are very blurred.
BM: How can we build a new architectural narrative that includes women if the historical sources we have at our disposal have been, for the most part, written from a position of power and privilege? Would you say that it is possible to achieve some kind of claim through a rereading of history, criticizing one's own criticism?
CE: History should be re-read as it contains information that is still hidden. We will be able to extract more stories from architecture. That desire of the historians of the twentieth century to exalt only some great architects, simplifying the world in an aberrational way, has caused us to lose a lot of existing information. They did not work alone, their partners or their collaborators were, at times, as big or bigger than them. Since you asked about the sources, I think that in the case of women, it is key to resort to other types of references because their works were published in “minor” books or magazines, outside the intellectual orthodoxy of the moment.
BM: For students, being able to access research that they offer as models and references to architects, activists, promoters, critics, disseminators, and managers is important. Which books would you recommend to nurture these perspectives?
CE: I would recommend that you open your eyes and look at the women who are building culture today. Anyway, I loved the vision of a woman that I admire as a scientist and as a person—In praise of imperfection (1987), written by Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi-Montalcini. An icon in the world of gender-based perspective architecture is Dolores Hayden's The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities (1983). Moreover, Philippe Aries and Georges Duby's A History of Private Life (1987) is a very interesting collection.
BM: How do you see the current condition of equity within the discipline? How do you think media can collaborate in the construction of equality?
CE: Currently there are many female architects who practice from very different positions. While it seems that our barriers have been lowered, there is still much more to demand. I usually ask my female students and colleagues to infiltrate all the professional sectors possible so that we can have a voice and vote in deciding any issue relevant to society. Our point of view is more than necessary, we are half the population and I understand that we will have to question and say something. Mass media are paramount in these matters of breaking gender stereotypes. When one is sensitive to these issues, one persistently perceives that the image that the world has of us is not appropriate and that some roles are still maintained when they should have already disappeared.
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