Fundació Mies van der Rohe has announced that a research project focused on Anna Bofill Levi has been awarded the third Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture. The project, titled “La arquitectura como contracanto: 1977-1996”, was initiated by architects Ma Elia Gutiérrez Mozo, José Parra Martínez, Ana Gilsanz Díaz, and Joaquín Arnau Amo. The research contextualizes the architectural works of pianist, architect, and composer Anna Bofill Levi and brings into focus the result of her multidisciplinary approach, intertwining practices and research in design, architecture and music.
The research will contribute to widening the spaces of intersection between architecture, music and geometry, the fundamental legacy of Anna Bofill Levi. It is these spaces on the margins that, fortunately, allow us to make visible other ways of doing architecture."-Anna Ramos, director of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation
This is the first edition of the Lilly Reich Grant awarded to research not focused exclusively on the study of Lilly Reich’s work, thus opening up the award to studies that bring visibility to more contributions to architecture that have been forgotten or relegated, made by professionals who have received discriminatory treatment. The jury, formed by architect and urban planner Zaida Muxí, architect and art critic Aaron Betsky, and architect and Ph.D. Débora Domingo Calabuig, has chosen this study from the 12 proposals received this year from all over the world.
The grant aims to encourage research and debate on modern and contemporary architecture, relaying fundamental concepts such as identity, social inclusion, and all aspects of sustainability. The Lilly Reich Scholarships for Equality in Architecture has been created in 2018 to celebrate and recognize the architectural legacy of Lilly Reich, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's artistic partner in the conception and execution of the German Pavilion in Barcelona in 1929. Despite her substantial contributions to one of the iconic works of Modernist architecture, her name was relegated to the background in the narrative and the memory of this chapter in the history of architecture.
In 2020, the 2nd Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture has been awarded to the research proposal: “[On Set with] Lilly Reich” by Valencian architects Laura Lizondo Sevilla, Débora Domingo Calabuig, and Avelina Prat García. The first call for proposals for the grant coincided with “Re-enactment”, an artistic intervention at the Barcelona Pavilion aiming to put the spotlight on Reich’s overlooked work.
About the authors of the project:
Mª Elia Gutiérrez Mozo (Albacete): Architect by the University of Navarra (1992) and Doctor of Architecture (1999) by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). Professor of Architectural Composition at the Polytechnic School of the University of Alicante(UA). Member of the University Institute for Research in Gender Studies (IUIEG) of the UA.
José Parra Martínez (Murcia): Architect (2000) and Doctor of Architecture (2012) by the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Associate Professor of Architectural Composition and Erasmus Academic Coordinator and International Relations of Architecture Polytechnic School of the University of Alicante (UA). Member of the Gender Studies Research Institute of the UA. He holds the title of Professor of Music from the Conservatory of Music of Murcia (1994).
Ana Gilsanz Díaz (Alicante): Architect (2004) by the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Master in Sustainable Architecture and Sustainable Urbanism (2011, Extraordinary Award) and PhD in Architecture (2017) from the University of Alicante (UA).Doctoral Assistant of Architectural Composition in the Department of Graphic Expression, Composition, and Projects where she teaches theory and history of architecture in the Degree and Master. Member of the UA University Institute for Research in Gender Studies and of the working team of the national project Women in (post) modern Spanish architectural culture (2019-2022). She is a research staff of the project Miradas situadas: women's architecture in Spain from peripheral perspectives, 1978-2008.
Joaquín Arnau Amo (Albacete): Doctor Architect. Retired Professor of Aesthetics and Composition at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura at the Universitat Politècnica de València, from 1978 to 2010.
