The International Archive of Women in Architecture will hold its 2022 Symposium - Breaking Through - on March 23 and 24.
March 23 will be a keynote presentation by Kathryn Prigmore, FAIA - Riding the Vortex - online and in person in Blacksburg, VA at Virginia Tech.
March 24 will be online paper presentations.
All sessions are free and open to the public. Registration and more information can be found at https://iawacenter.caus.vt.edu/2022-symposium/.
Throughout history, women in architecture and design have used their professional and academic practices to contribute to the built environment and the development of design disciplines: they have carved new paths toward invention and innovation, challenged established (gendered) limitations, and developed alternative forms of practice, to name just a few pioneering outcomes.
Additionally, within every woman’s body of work, there are known or identifiable breakthroughs: singular or multiple instances exist that have influenced the designer’s creative and professional path, and that may have advanced the disciplines in some manner, or expanded women’s standing in the profession. This year’s IAWA symposium invites researchers and practitioners to contribute papers or creative presentations that identify instances in the career of a woman designer that have been or should be recognized as a breakthrough: a relevant revelatory moment.
The Symposium particularly seeks to uncover and give visibility to the material artifacts produced by women in practice or academia that have prompted this point(s) of inflection in their lives, careers, or in the projects or studies they have conducted. Such material artifacts – a sketch, drawing, note or scribble, study model, personal letter, collage, rendering, screen print, photograph, outline or synopsis of written work, academic project prompt – serve as physical markers. They record relevant advances and innovations that may have impacted their creator's personal path, at a personal or at broader scales. Material artifacts illustrate how the designer may have influenced the histories of the disciplines, or altered the perception and development of the built environment. Furthermore, material artifacts may serve as evidence of the types of limitations – whether personal or imposed by the profession, academia or society – that women have transcended.
