10 Architecture Studios Led by Women [III]

From METALOCUS we have selected ten major international architectural firms founded and led by women with a successful career. They all have relevant projects although not all of them are known well enough

The Lurie Garden, Millennium Park, Chicago by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol. Photograph © L. O. Bryan, M. Tomaras.

We strongly think that we should emphasizes the women’s work in architecture and we selected ten important architecture firms to continue with the series we started last year.

These are this year's studios led by hard-working and strong women.- Arantza Ozaeta Cortázar - TallerDE2, Benedetta Tabliabue - Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Gabriela Etchegaray, Kathryn Gustafson - Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Maya Lin - Maya Lin studio , Fuensanta Nieto - Nieto Sobejano , Victoria Garriga - AV62 Arquitectos , Carme Pigem - RCR Arquitectes, Beatriz Colomina, Sandra Barclay - Barclay & Crousse Architecture

Maya Lin Maya Lin studio

Maya Lin, artist, designer and environmentalist, Maya Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio. She designed as an undergraduate student at Yale like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama, and the Women's Table at Yale. Her architectural projects include the main building and master plan for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA (2015), the Museum for Chinese in America (2009) in New York City and the Riggio-Lynch Interfaith Chapel (2004) and Langston Hughes Library (1999) in Clinton, Tennessee. Currently she is working on the redesign of the Neilson Library at Smith College. Her designs create a close dialogue between the landscape and built environment, and she is committed to advocating sustainable design solutions in all her works.

Lin has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide, with works in the permanent collections of the National gallery of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art; The Smithsonian Institution; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; The Nevada Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; and the California Academy of Sciences. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has been profiled in, among others, TIME, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. The 1996 documentary about her, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Her book about her work and creative process, Boundaries, is in its fifth printing with Simon & Schuster. Maya Lin: Topologies, a monograph spanning the past 30 years of her career was first released in Fall 2015 by Skira Rizzoli and is in its second printing. In 2009 she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence, and in 2016 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama, the Nation's highest Civilian Honor.

Kathryn Gustafson Gustafson Porter + Bowman

Kathryn Gustafsonan, a landscape designer, brings over 35 years of distinguished practice to her partnerships in two offices: Gustafson Porter + Bowman in London and Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) in Seattle. Kathryn’s work includes the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial, HM Treasury Courtyards, the Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, Seattle City Hall Plaza, the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the landscape design for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, DC.

Kathryn’s current projects include Bay East in Singapore, Valencia Parque Central, Rhine Terrace in Basel, Marina One in Singapore, and Taikoo Place in Hong Kong. Prior to establishing Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Kathryn worked in France, where she was the lead landscape designer for the headquarters of Shell (1990), Esso (1992) and a model factory for L’Oréal (1993). Other significant works include the award-winning Jardins de l’Imaginaire in Terrasson la Villedieu (1995) which is classed by the French Ministry of culture as one of the most notable gardens in France. Her work at the public plaza in Evry (1991) was one of the first landscape projects worldwide to create a flexible space with water jets. Kathryn lectures internationally and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architecture, an honorary Royal Designer for Industry member and a medallist of the French Academy of Architecture. She is the recipient of the Architects’ Journal Jane Drew Prize 1998, the 2001 Chrysler Design Award, the 2008 ASLA Design Medal, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize for Architecture 2012 and the 8th Obayashi Prize, Japan in 2015. In 2011, Kathryn and her GGN partners received the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture.

Benedetta Tagliabue EMBT studio

Benedetta Tagliabue, responsible for the EMBT studio, founded with Enric Miralles, Benedetta Tagliabue. Born in 1963 in Milan, she studied architecture at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice, where she graduated in 1989 obtaining the highest grade with a thesis on Central Park. This work earned her the first prize of the Barcelona Young Biennial Competition in 1991, a circumstance that allowed her to coincide with Enric Miralles, who shortly after joined to establish the EMBT Arquitectes Associats studio. The international recognition and projection of the firm came from contests and international projects such as the Unazuki Meditation Pavilion- Japan, the Utrecht City Hall or the Hamburg Music School.

After the unexpected death of Miralles in 2000, Tagliabue continued the work by both initiates bringing a good end to the various projects that were under way, emblematic works such as the Classrooms of the Universidad of Vigo, Diagonal Mar Park in Barcelona, The Parliament of Scotland or the Santa Caterina market. Under the direction of Tagliabue, EMBT has not stopped making new projects around the world, such as the construction of the Spanish Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo 2010. Her work has been recognized on several occasions, especially highlighting the multi-award Parliament of Scotland and the Shanghai Pavilion. The first one was awarded in the Biennial of Spanish Architecture of 2005 as well as chosen as Best Building of 2005 by the RIBA Stirling Prize; for its part, the Shanghai Pavilion received the City of Barcelona Award in 2009 and the RIBA Fellowship of Architecture in 2010. Tagliabue is member of the jury of the Pritzker Prize since 2014.

Arantza Ozaeta Cortázar TallerDE2

Arantza Ozaeta Cortázar is a Spanish architect, born in Madrid in 1982. She founded with Alvaro Martín Fidalgo their architecture studio TallerDE2 in 2007 when she was still a student. The studio work is divided between Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. She studied architecture at the Politecnico de Madrid ETSAM between 2000 and 2008. She worked with José Ballesteros, director of the magazine Pasajes de Arquitectura y Crítica, between 2006 and 2008. She completed her PhD at the ETSAM Madrid school in Department of Advanced Projects in 2010. She taught at the same school in Madrid ETSAM since 2009.

Her first project was a children's center in Selb, Bavaria, won the Bauwelt International Award and the BEAU 2013 Urbanization Biennial. AJ magazine Arquitects Journal) gives her the 2014 Women in Architecture award. Among her projects are the POP-UP House - transformation of a department, Children's Day Center in Selb, (building under construction, as a result of the implementation of the 1st Prize awarded at the Europan-9 International Competition in 2008) or the Vegetal Cavern project. She has several projects in execution: an urban strategy for the renovation of Selb, Bavaria; A Passivhaus in Zamora, Spain; Experimental housing in Selb, Bavaria; A building for the inspection of vehicles in La Rioja, Spain and homes in Madrid and Zamora, Spain.

Gabriela Etchegaray

Gabriela Etchegaray, Mexican architect, partner of Ambrosi studio | Etchegaray, is one of the young outstanding representatives of the architecture of her country. She studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana (2008), with a Master in Creative Management and Transformation of the City (UPC-UIA, 2010-2012). Since 2010 she is partner of AMBROSI | ETCHEGARAY, established in the city of Mexico, where currently work from projects of house room and developments of real estate promotion, to cultural projects. He obtained the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture.

Her studio was finalist in the National Contest for the Pavilion of the Universal Exposition of Shanghai, China (in partnership with Mauricio Rocha, 2010), recognition at the Holcim Awards Latin America (2011) with the Urban and Landscape Martinique project, The 21 Young Mexican Architects (MUCA, UNAM, 2012), Mention of Honor for the Dance Academy projects and the Yoga and Spa Center in Querétaro at the XI Biennial of Mexican Architecture, selected for the Biennial of Latin American Architecture in Pamplona ( 2013). In 2014, they were appointed by the Architectural League of New York "Emerging Voices", and selected for the IX Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU 2014). In the framework of MEXTROPOLI, they participated in the exhibition (with) formal sequences, along with offices AT103 and Productora. In addition to many other prizes, they recently won the second place in the contest for Papalote, Museum of the Child in Iztapalapa, Mexico (2015).

Sandra Barclay Barclay & Crousse Architecture

Sandra Barclay was born in 1967 in Lima, Peru. She graduated as an architect by the University of Lima URP in 1990, and in 1993 by the University of Paris-Belleville, in Paris(France) where se moved on. She won the Robert Camelot Prize in 1993 for her thesis awarded by the French Academy of Architecture. She founded with Jean Pierre Crousse Barclay & Crousse Architecture in Paris, France in 1994, now based in Paris and Lima. In 2000 she obtained Fulbrignt Foundation and American Institute of Architects Fellowship. She has taught at universities such as Paris La Villette (2005-2006) and Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). She has been a curator at the Venice Biennale in 2016.The work of Barclay & Crousse Architecture is focused on human well-being and on establishing links with the landscape through light, space ...

Carme Pigem RCR Arquitectes

Carmen Pigem born in 1962 in Olot, Spain, studied at the School of Fine Arts in Olot and graduated as an architect by the ETSA Vallés. She founded the RCR study in the year 1987 together with Ramón Vilalta and Rafael Aranda. Installed in his hometown of Olot, iwe could said that Olot's athletics stadium, the Tosca Stone Park in 2004 or the Bell-lloc wineries are characteristic of her architecture that seeks to establish a relationship with the landscape. They use materials such as corten steel creating a threshold between the natural and the artificial. In domestic architecture and in their urban projects, these ideas are being transposed.Carme Pigem has worked as a project teacher at ETSA Vallés. And since 2005 she has been a guest lecturer in Zurich, Switzerland, in the Architecture Department of the Institute of Technology. She organizes since 2012 a workshop in summer in which students and architects participate. In 2017 she receives the Pritzker Prize with his RCR partners.

Fuensanta Nieto Nieto y Sobejano Arquitectos

Fuensanta Nieto, born in 1957, studied architecture at the ETSAM, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and she studied a master's degree in NY at Columbia University. She founded his studio, Nieto and Sobejano Arquitectos together with Enrique Sobejano in 1985. From 1986 to 1999 she directed the magazine of the official school of Architects of Madrid: Architecture. She has taught at the Universidad Europea de Madrid.She has won numerous public competitions between them and the extension of the rectorate of the University of Vigo. He has carried out housing projects in Seville. Design of the Palacio de Congresos in Zaragoza in 2008. Among his other outstanding works:

- the Madinat al-zahra museum and institutional headquarters in Cordoba (2009) which received the Aga Khan award in 2010, the Piranesi Prize of Rome in 2011 and the European Museum of the Year award in 2012
- the National Sculpture Museum National Sculpture Museum Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid completed in 2007 which has received the National Prize for Conservation and the Restoration of Architectural Goods in 2007
- the expansion of the Moritzburg Art Museum in Germany (2011) which received the Nike Award from the BDA (2010) and the Hannes Meyer Award (2012).

Victoria Garriga AV62 Arquitectos

Victoria Garriga, born in 1969 and graduated in 1995 from ETSA Barcelona. She has collaborated with Enric Miralles and has been a professor at the Eina University in Barcelona since 2000, professor of master and postgraduate studies at ETSAB, professor of projects at the UIC. She has given numerous lectures on architecture, interior design... In 1996 the AV62 study was founded.

Beatriz Colomina

Beatriz Colomina was born in 1952 in Madrid, Spain, internationally recognized, she is an architect, historian and architectural theorist. She studied at the Higher Technical School of Architecture in Barcelona where she graduated as an architect and holds a doctorate. She is dedicated to teaching and is the author of numerous books and articles. In 1982, in NY, he studied at the New York Institute for the Humanities.
She is a professor of architecture as well as director and founder of the Media and Communication Program at Princeton University, a postgraduate program.

She has published books including: Modern Architecture as Mass Media (1994) and Sexuality and Space (1992), which received the International Book Award by the American Institute of Architects. In addition, she has contributed in The Banham Lectures, Philip Johnson: The Constancy of Change, Beyond Transparency and catalogs of the work of Dan Graham, Muntadas and SANAA. He was selected as a jury in 2010 of the Venice Biennale. She has written several articles for JSAH (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians) and she has done many other publications and reading presentations.

Princess Diana of Wales Memorial Fountain by Gustafson Porter. Photograph © Jason Hawkes.

Green Cave by TallerDE2. Photograph © Jorge López Conde.

Childminders Centre by TallerDE2. Photograph © Feigfotodesign.

Market Santa Caterina BCN, Spain, 2005 by Benedetta Tagliabue, EMBT studio. Photograph © Roland Halbe.

Pavillion Expo Shanghai 2010 by Benedetta Tagliabue, EMBT studio. Photograph © Zhonghai Zhen.

Outside view of the Soulages Museum by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Hisao Suzuki.

Hofheide Crematory by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © infosteel.

Barceló Market in Madrid by Nieto Sobejano. Photograph © Roland Halbe.

Model. Contemporary art center Cordoba by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos.

Indoor. Contemporary art center Cordoba by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos. Photograph © Roland Halbe.

House EM by Gabriela Etchegaray y Jorge Ambrosi. Photograph © Rafael Gamo.

Art. Systematics Land Scapes by Maya Lin, 2009.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982 by Maya Lin.

Place of Remembrance by Barclay & Crousse Architecture. Photograph © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma.

New archeology museum in Perú by Barclay & Crousse Architecture. Photograph © Erieta attali, JP Crousse.

Maritime Museum by AV62 Arquitectos. Photograph © Lourdes Jansana, Paolo Calarco.

Archeologic Museum by AV62 Arquitectos. Photograph © Lourdes Jansana, Quim Pintó.

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Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, Ramon Vilalta. RCR Arquitectes

Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta, work together since 1988 under the name RCR ARQUITECTES in Olot. They are Premio Nacional de Cultura en Arquitectura 2005 by Generalitat de Catalunya, Chevaliers de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Republique Française in 2008, honorary members by the AIA American Institute of Architecture 2010 and International Award 2011 "Belgian Building Awards". Since 1989 are architects advisors at Parque Natural de la Zona Volcánica de la Garrotxa and have been teachers of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture and Project. They have won different international competitions (the latter, the Waalsekrook media library in Belgium, the Soulages museum in France, Hofheide's crematorium in Belgium and The Edge Bussiness Bay in Dubai). They have received awards in his work among which two finalists positions in the awards of the European Union Mies Van der Rohe. Some of their awarded works have been exhibited in different events and published in several monographs.

RCR has shown the ability to think and transform that bring teamwork and the promotion of cultural initiatives from Bunka Foundation and workshops within the LAB-A in the Espacio Barberí, and have proven that it is possible to do international architecture from a rural environment, which is what has stimulated his imagination.

Following the work of RCR there is a philosophy which works for harmony between humans and nature. The most advanced technologies and materials such as steel or glass, with established rhythms and light that acts in opposition to each, are those that allow RCR this return to the essence of space that is the subject of architecture.

BEATRIZ COLOMINA

Beatriz Colomina is an internationally renowned architectural historian and theorist who has written extensively on questions of architecture and media. Ms. Colomina has taught in the School since 1988, and is the Founding Director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University, a graduate program that promotes the interdisciplinary study of forms of culture that came to prominence during the last century and looks at the interplay between culture and technology. In 2006-2007 she curated, with a group of Princeton Ph.D. students, the exhibition "Clip/Stamp/Fold: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X-197X" at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal. The exhibition continues to travel around the world, in the Museum of Design of Barcelona and the Colegio de Arquitectos de Murcia, at the NAI Maastricht and Santiago de Chile and Montevideo. Over 100 reviews and articles on the exhibition have been published worldwide. An exhibition catalog is forthcoming from ACTAR.

Her books include Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1994), which was awarded the 1995 International Book Award by the American Institute of Architects, has already been translated into many languages and is coming out in Spanish and in Turkish. In addition, Ms. Colomina has published Sexuality and Space (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992), which was awarded the 1993 International Book Award by the American Institute of Architects; and Architectureproduction (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1988). She has contributed to many volumes, including The Banham Lectures, Philip Johnson: The Constancy of Change, Beyond Transparency and catalogues of the work of Dan Graham, Muntadas and SANAA, among others. In addition she has published Cold War Hot Houses: Inventing Postwar Culture from Cockpit to Playboy, co-edited with AnnMarie Brennan and Jeannie Kim (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004; Doble exposición: Arquitectura a través del arte (Double Exposure: Architecture through Art) (Madrid: Akal, 2006), and Domesticity at War (Barcelona: ACTAR and MIT Press, 2007). She was selected to be a Juror for the 2010 Venice Biennale and a juror in the architectural competition for the new headquarters of CAF (Corporación Andina de Fomento), in Caracas, Venezuela. She presented "Women in Architecture," a keynote lecture in the conference Female Forces, 100 year anniversary, at the Royal Academy Copenhagen. In addition to being the Editor of the Multimedia Section of the JSAH (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians) she has written numerous other publications and presented lectures throughout the world, including at MoMA, the MAXXI museum in Rome, the Guggenheim museum, DoCoMoMo in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Chandigarh, Osaka, Tokyo, Florence, Oslo, Thesaloniki, Patras, Guadalajara, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Ohio, Pamplona, Porto, Toronto, Houston, Texas AM, Yale, Chicago and Harvard University.

ARQUITECTOS NIETO SOBEJANO

Fuensanta Nieto (Madrid 1957) and Enrique Sobejano (Madrid 1957), are graduated architects by the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) and Master of Science in Building Design por la Graduate School of Architecture and Planning (GSAPP), Columbia University, New York (USA). Are partners of the office Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, with headquarters in Madrid and Berlín.

Enrique Sobejano is Design Professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin (Germany) and Fuensanta Nieto Fuensanta is an Design Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the Universidad Europea de Madrid. Both have been guest professors and lecturers at various universities and institutions within and outside Spain. From 1986 to 1991 was Director of ARQUITECTURA magazine, of Official College of Architects of Madrid.

Sobejano Nieto's work has been published in numerous magazines and books in Spanish and international, such as Casabella, METALOCUS, The Sketch, Architectural Review, Domus, Architectural Record, Detail, A + U, etc, and has been exhibited, among other places, Venice Biennale (2000, 2002, 2006) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York (2006). They have received the National Award for Restoration of the Ministry of Culture (2008), the Nike Prize BDA (Bund Deutscher Architekten) (2010) and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2010).

Among his recent works include Madinat al Zahra Museum (Córdoba), Moritzburg (Germany), Colegio de San Gregorio (Valladolid) and the Conference Centres of Mérida and Zaragoza.

NIETO SOBEJANO ARQUITECTOS: http://www.nietosobejano.com

Sandra Barclay + Jean Pierre Crousse Barclay & Crousse

Barclay & Crousse. Their work manage a wide range of programs and focuses both on the relationship to place and human wellbeing, through pertinence in usage and attention to time, space and light. They like to consider their projects as being part of a design laboratory that explore the bonds between landscape, climate and architecture, in order to challenge those notions of technology, usage, and quality of life that, from the specific conditions of developing countries, can inform and be pertinent in a global context.

Founded in 1994 in Paris, since 2006 the studio is based in Lima, pursuing its activity in France with the Parisian studio Atelier Nord-Sud. Their work has been recognized by the first Oscar Niemeyer Prize, and in several international Biennales. They have been awarded by the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) with the 2013 Latin America Prize. Barclay & Crousse has earned the Peruvian Architecture National Prize, Hexágono de Oro, in 2014. Their work has been exhibited and published worldwide. The Italian editor Lettera Ventidue published in 2012 a monographic book about their work in the Peruvian desert coastline, presented at the 13th Venice Biennale.

Sandra Barclay

1967 born in Lima (Peru). 1990 Graduated as Architect at URP (Lima). 1993 Graduated as Architect at the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville (France). 1993 Robert Camelot Prize for best Architectural Thesis in France. 1994 Established Barclay & Crousse Architecture in Paris, France. 2000 Fulbrignt Foundation and American Institute of Architects Fellowship. 2005-2006 Teacher at the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris La Villette (Paris, France). 2006 Teacher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. 2012 Participant for Peru at the 13th Venice Biennale. 2013 Master in Territory and Landscape, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile). 2016 Curator of the Peruvian Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale.

Jean Pierre Crousse

1963 Born in Lima (Peru). 1987 Architecture degree at URP (Lima). 1989 graduated at the Politécnico di Milano (Italy). 1994 Established Barclay & Crousse Architecture in Paris, France. 1999-2006 Teacher at the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris Belleville (France). 2006 Teacher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. 2012 Member of the South America Project, GSD – Harvard University. 2012 Participant for Peru at the 13th Venice Biennale. 2013 Master in Territory and Landscape, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile). 2015 Design Critic at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. 2016 Member of the International Jury of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, Chicago. 2016 Curator of the Peruvian Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale.

GUSTAFSON PORTER + BOWMAN

Gustafson Porter + Bowman are an award-winning landscape architecture practice based in London. We have a talented team of landscape architects, architects and urban designers led by 5 partners. Our wide-ranging specialisations allow us to engage with a multitude of projects from the urban masterplan scale to bespoke designs. Our design process is always based on a deep understanding of a site; its geographical context and the organisations and cultures that shape them.

We always visit our sites, research their location, history, hydrology, soils, plant communities, local context and site constraints. We will talk to clients, stakeholders and local people about their needs and ambitions. Only once we feel that we have understood these will we start developing a strong conceptual framework that lends meaning and distinctiveness to our landscape work. Throughout our 23-year history, we have sought to continuously push the boundaries of what constitutes the field of landscape design. We care deeply about our work, with strong personal commitments to achieving the best possible outcome for our clients, the environment and the local community. Our strong engagement with local communities and stakeholders, including artists and scientists, adds layers of richness to our work.

Maya Lin. Maya Lin Studio

Maya Lin. (Athens, Ohio, USA, 1959) studied art and architecture at Yale University. Her first project was the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington D.C. (1981-1982), which she produced when she was barely twenty-two years old. At that time she set up her studio in New York, from which she carried out numerous architectural, landscaping, and public space projects.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has been profiled in, among others, TIME, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. The 1996 documentary about her, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Her book about her work and creative process, Boundaries, is in its fifth printing with Simon & Schuster. Maya Lin: Topologies, a monograph spanning the past 30 years of her career was first released in the Fall of 2015 by Skira Rizzoli and is in its second printing. In 2009 she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence, and in 2016 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama, the Nation's highest Civilian Honor.

Artist, designer, and environmentalist, Maya Lin interprets the natural world through science, history, politics, and culture, creating a remarkable and highly acclaimed body of work in art and architecture. Her works merge the physical and psychological environment, presenting a new way of seeing the world around us.

Her work has also been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, with solo shows such as Il Cortile Mare (1998) at the American Academy in Rome or those celebrated at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington D.C., the Heinz Architectural Center in Pittsburgh, the Wanås Foundation in Sweden, or the David Brower Center in Berkeley to name a few.

Lin's Memorials address the critical social and historical issues of our time. From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial which she designed as an undergraduate student at Yale, to The Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama, and the Women's Table at Yale make our history part of the landscape. Her, What is Missing? is focused on the environment.

Lin's art explores how we experience and relate to Nature, setting up a systematic ordering of the land that is tied to history, memory, time, and language. Her interest in landscape has led to works influenced by topographies and natural phenomena.

Her work asks the viewer to reconsider nature and the environment at a time when it is crucial to do so. A committed environmentalist, she is working on her last memorial, "What is Missing?"; a cross-platform, global memorial to the planet, located in select scientific institutions, online as a website, and a book, calling attention to the crisis surrounding biodiversity and habitat loss. www.whatismissing.org

Her architectural projects include the main building and master plan for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA (2015), the Museum for Chinese in America (2009) in New York City, and the Riggio-Lynch Interfaith Chapel (2004), and Langston Hughes Library (1999) in Clinton, Tennessee. Currently, she is working on the redesign of the Neilson Library at Smith College. Her designs create a close dialogue between the landscape and the built environment, and she is committed to advocating sustainable design solutions in all her works.

Lin has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide, with works in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art; The Smithsonian Institution; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; The Nevada Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; and the California Academy of Sciences.

Arantza Ozaeta Cortázar, Álvaro Martín Fidalgo TallerDE2

TallerDE2. Arantza Ozaeta Cortázar (1982) and Álvaro Martín Fidalgo (1980) head TallerDE2 Architects since 2008, a Madrid based office for architecture, urban planning and landscape design. The office TallerDE2 Architects makes an ongoing commitment to research and knowledge, both in training and innovative practice. Their work has international scope, been recognized, published and awarded on several occasions.

Arantza Ozaeta Cortázar and Alvaro Martín Fidalgo’s work is mainly developed between Spain, Germany, Italy and UK, where they are teaching, researching and building recent winning competitions. They studied architecture at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM and at the TU Delft of The Netherlands. They completed the coursework for the PhD at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM in the Department of Advanced Projects in 2010 where they are PhD candidates.

Arantza Ozaeta Cortázar and Alvaro Martín Fidalgo have been recognized with the international award Bauwelt Prize 2013, the prize COAM Luis M. Mansilla 2013 and Finalists at the XII Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennale 2013, for the project ‘Haus der Tagesmütter’.They have been prize winners in several competitions, among which the following can be highlighted: they won the european competition Europan-09 in Selb (Germany), where they are developing an entire urban strategy for a “shrinking city” through the Urban Acupuncture principle. As the result of the implementation of this competition they have completed the project ‘Haus der Tagesmütter’, as well as the project ‘Youth Club and Youth Hostel’, which is currently under construction. They have won the ‘IQ Experimental Collective Housing-Wohnquartiere’ in Germany, which is currently under construction. They were selected at the international competition for ephemeral urban gardens in Bilbao for their winning project ‘Green Cave’, which was realized during the event.

They have been teaching at the Architectural Association School of Architecture-Visiting School Programme (UK), Architectural Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain), Hochschule Coburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Ural State Technical University of Ekaterinburg (Russia). In addition, they have actively participated in debates, workshops and lectures and their work has been selected to be exhibited in different places and events in Spain, Germany, Austria and Italy.

Benedetta Tagliabue

Benedetta Tagliabue was born in Milan and graduated from the University of Venice in 1989. In 1991 she joined Enric Miralles’ studio where she eventually became a partner. Her work with Miralles, whom she married, includes a number of high profile buildings and projects in Barcelona: Parque Diagonal Mar (1997-2002), Head Office Gas Natural (1999-2006) and the Market and quarter Santa Caterina (1996-2005), as well as projects across Europe, including the School of Music in Hamburg (1997-2000) and the City Hall in Utrecht (1996-2000).

In 1998, the partnership won the competition to design the new Scottish Parliament building and despite Miralles’ premature death in 2000, Tagliabue took leadership of the team as joint Project Director and the Parliament was successfully completed in 2004, winning several awards.

She won the competition for the new design of Hafencity Harbor in Hamburg , Germany, for a subway train station in Naples and for the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Shanghai 2010 among others.

Today under the direction of Benedetta Tagliabue the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT studio works with architectural projects, open spaces, urbanism, rehabilitation and exhibitions, trying to conserve the spirit of the Spanish and Italian artisan architectural studio tradition which espouses collaboration rather than specialization.

Their architectural philosophy is dedicating special attention to context.

Benedetta has written for several architectural magazines and has taught at, amongst other places, the University of architecture ETSAB in Barcelona. She has lectured in many international architectural Forums as, for example, the RIBA, the Architectural Association and Bartlett School in, London, the Berlage Institut in Amsterdam, and in USA, China and South America.

Miralles Tagliabue. EMBT

Miralles Tagliabue EMBT is an international acknowledged architecture studio formed by Enric Miralles (1955-2000) and Benedetta Tagliabue in 1994.

The studio has experience in public spaces and buildings in both Europe and China working for State and Local Governments as well as Corporate and private clients.

EMBT’s mature approach to architecture, interior design, facility planning includes experience with educational, commercial, industrial and residential buildings, restoration of buildings as well as special purpose landscape architecture.

Each project evolves from the specific client requirements and innovation emerges through the design process. This approach is combined with strong technical and management skills to provide cost effective and personal service.

The studio maintains a highly personal level of service throughout the design process and offer strong technical and structural solutions through close collaboration with engineering offices.

The majority of the EMBT projects are commissioned by public clients with special emphasis on urban space and the coherence between the built environment and the public space. Each project brings with it a new client and special cost constraints. To achieve the desired solution, EMBT believe that the design process must be a collaborative effort between the client and the designer.

EMBT ensures that clients take an active role in defining their needs, bringing client and solution together, and is backed by a support team with a capability of responding rapidly to projects demands.

The studio put great emphasis on each individual projects context, history and culture and aims to enhance these aspects through their unique design process.

Victoria Garriga

Victoria Garriga was born in Barcelona, 1969. She is an Architect from the ETSA Barcelona, Polytechnic University of Catalonia UPC, 1995. Victoria has collaborated in the office of Enric Miralles.

Victoria Garriga has won several awards and competitions for national and international projects such as “The revitalization of the Adhamiya district of Baghdad”, “The National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul”, Urban Rehabilitation of the Erbil Citadel in Kurdistan.

In 2012 she founded AV62Development & Consulting, a professional services association designed to provide urban planning and management in developing countries.

She has been professor and visiting professor at different schools of architecture and design in Spain and abroad.

Toño Foraster. AV62 Arquitectos

AV62 Arquitectos is a studio founded in 1996 by Toño Foraster and Victoria Garriga. Since 2017 it has been directed by Toño Foraster.

Toño Foraster. Bilbao, 1968. Master in Architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 1994. Completes his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape. Between 1993 and 1995 he collaborated with the architect Josep Llinás and in 1996 he founded, together with Victoria Garriga, AV62 ARQUITECTOS.

He has been a professor at several universities (University of Virginia –USA-, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Universidad Politécnica de Sevilla, ELISAVA/Barcelona School of Design and Engineering –Universitdad Pompeu Fabra-, EINA, University Design Center and Art of Barcelona. UAB, among others and has given numerous conferences on his professional experience, especially on urban development and protection of architectural heritage in fragile contexts (World Bank Headquarters, Casa Arabe, IEMED-Institut Europeu de la Mediterrània, among others Much of his work focuses on the development of Cultural, Museum and Teaching Equipment projects as well as Territorial Planning and Urban Revitalization.

Published on: October 7, 2017

Cite: "10 Architecture Studios Led by Women [III]" METALOCUS. Accessed

<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/10-architecture-studios-led-women-iii> ISSN 1139-6415