10 Architecture Studios Led by women [XII]. 12 years, 120 architects and more...

In this edition, the 12th, we pay tribute to the work and talent of ten architectural studios led by women whose projects, although always relevant, are not always sufficiently known.

These are the studios and architects selected this year.- Jing Liu - So-il. Natalie Eldan - Atelier NEA. Maki Onishi - O+H. Judith LECLERC - COLL&LECLERC. Meriem Chabani - NEW SOUTH. Zhang Jinqiu. Marta Ochoa - Casa Antillón. Katt Both. Natalie Griffin de Blois. Natalie Griffin de Blois. Leila Araghian, Diba Tensile Architecture. 

• Jing Liu - So-il.

Jing Liu was born in 1980 in Nanjing, China, where she received her education, as well as in other countries such as Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, where she finally studied Architecture at the Tulane University of Architecture in New Orleans.

It was in 2008 when, after living in New York for four years, she founded her studio SO-IL with her partner, the German architect Florian Idenburg.

For more than 20 years, Jing has brought an intellectually open sensibility to the overall vision of the studio, in a globally conscious and locally integrated way to her work, which covers a wide range of cultural projects.

Jing Liu's professional career spans several disciplines and topics on which she has written on several occasions, such as housing, design culture and women in architecture. She has also always been involved with the socio-political conditions of contemporary cities, where she has worked with initiatives such as Neighborhoods Now in New York and the Transformation of the Arts District in Melbourne.

• Natalie Eldan - Atelier NEA.

Natalie Eldan was born in Jerusalem and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and at L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris la Villette in Paris.

After completing her studies, Natalie worked in various architectural studios in Tokyo, Jerusalem and Paris, including Kengo Kuma Kengo Kuma & Associates (Tokyo), Kolker Kolker Epstein (Jerusalem), Atelier Christian de Portzamparc (Paris), Valero Gadan Architectes (Paris) & Manuelle Gautrand Architecture (Paris).

In 2014, she founded Atelier NEA, a Paris-based studio with international reach that is dedicated to architecture, research and the development of urban strategies.

Nathalie's career in architecture includes designing, developing and building large-scale national and international projects, including homes, museums, universities and hotels, interior designs, stage sets and artistic installations.

• Maki Onishi - O+H.

Maki Onishi was born in 1983 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, where she lives and studies until she moves to Kyoto, where she graduates in Architecture in 2006.

Later, in 2008, she earned a master's degree from the School of Architecture at Kyoto University.

In 2008, she completed her studies with a master's degree in architecture from the University of Tokyo, where, that same year and in collaboration with her colleague Yuki Hyakuda, she founded her studio onishimaki+hyakudayuki / O+H, an architectural studio that, in addition to designing spaces taking into account all their scales, reflects on themes such as temporality, habitability, the human being, spatial perception, etc.

Onishi became a visiting professor at Kyoto University in 2016, a visiting professor at Yokohama National University (Y-GSA) in 2017, and in 2022 she was appointed professor at Yokohama National University (Y-GSA), where she currently teaches.

O+H has works on very different scales, including: Shelter Inclusive Place COPAL (Children's Playground Facility in Southern Yamagata City, 2022), Taga Community Center (2019), Good Job! Center KASHIBA (2016), and Double Helix House (2011).

In addition, she has received numerous awards including the ADAN Grand Prix Award in 2018 for Good Job Center KASHIBA, the JIA Young Architect Award in 2018, and the AIJ Young Architect Award for Selected Architectural Designs 2019 for Good Job Center KASHIBA.

• Judith Leclerc - COLL&LECLERC.

Judith Leclerc, born in Montreal in 1967, is an architect who graduated from McGill University in Montreal (1992) and from ETSA Barcelona (2002), and is a jury member of Europan 10.

In 1993, together with Jaime Coll López, she founded the COLL-LECLERC studio with temporary offices in Paris and New York. This studio has been recognized and awarded in various national and international competitions, including projects such as the Sant Just Sports Centre, finalist in the 2002 FAD awards, or the London-Villarroel facilities and the Urquinaona Plaza Renovation in Barcelona.

Judith, together with her partner and co-founder of COLL-LECLERC, has given lectures in different centres in Spain and in cities around the world such as Phoenix, Sao Paulo, Graz, Frankfurt, as well as in China and Mexico on different occasions.

Since 1996, Judith Leclerc has been involved in teaching at Canadian and Spanish universities and since 2013, the firm has been dedicated to expanding its professional activity in Canada.

• Meriem Chabani - NEW SOUTH. 

Meriem Chabani, born in Algeria and resident in Paris, is an architect and urban planner from the National School of Architecture Paris-Malaquais, where she completed her thesis «Dear stakeholders: an analysis of the ability of architects-urban planners to transform territories into complex hierarchies» in 2015.

Since finishing her thesis in 2015, she has been leading her studio NEW SOUTH together with her partner and co-founder John Edom. The studio, based in Paris and Brussels, develops tactical proposals adapted to various scales, whose architecture aims to provide an opportunity to reveal what is already there and give voice to invisible narratives.

Meriem has ten years of experience in complex territorial, urban and architectural projects, and focuses more on contexts facing significant socio-economic challenges, with a methodology that encourages dialogue and negotiation, federating diverse actors in multidisciplinary project leadership teams.

Today, the founder and director of NEW SOUTH teaches at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris-Malaquais, France and at the Royal College of Arts, UK.

New South's work has been exhibited at Design Doha (2024), the 18th Venice Biennale (2023), the Tirana Architecture Triennale (2023), the Oslo Architecture Biennial (2023) and the Istanbul Design Biennial (2018). It has also been awarded the European "40 under 40" award, which recognises the 40 best European studios with ages under 40.

• Zhang Jinqiu.

Zhang Jinqiu was born in 1936 in Chengdu, a Chinese city in Sichuan province, to a family that placed great emphasis on her education. Her aunt, Zhang Yuquan, belongs to the first generation of female architects in China, and, according to the architect, her parents raised her to “have ambitions, to stand on her own in society and not to depend on others.”

Zhang graduated in Architecture from Tsinghua University in 1960 and obtained a Master’s degree in History and Theory of Architecture in 1964. It was later, studying with one of the pioneers of Chinese architecture, Liang Sicheng, that she further developed her interests in traditional and modern architecture, where she began her search for a modern architectural language that matched her ideals, something that was not easy due to the rejection of Western architecture and traditional Chinese architecture by the Chinese political regime of the time in the mid-1960s.

After graduating, she was assigned to work in Architectural Design and Theoretical Pursuits at the Northwest China Architectural Design Office in Xi'an, eventually rising to the position of director and earning the title of chief architect at the China Capital Construction Design Group in 1987. The Chinese government declared Zhang an expert in architectural design.

Her works focus on the unity and harmonious relationship between science and aesthetics, as well as between the vernacular and the modern, and most of them can be found in Xi'an, where Zhang lived for more than half a century, in Shaanxi Province.

In the 1970s, she undertook the restoration of Tang Dynasty building structures and gardens. His ideas on utilizing technological and scientific advancements were realized in his conservation and heritage projects, most notably the Shaanxi History Museum, a project described as a modern architectural project in which traditional architectural elements are used with ingredients of innovation.

As well as revitalizing the ancient city and its history, Zhang’s designs feature architectural features from the past in a modern context. This approach, often referred to as “Neo-Tang Style,” gained popularity through his works. “The Tang style I practice is, in fact, a way of exploring diversified creations. I like different architectural styles as long as they fit the time, place, and theme at that time.”

Zhang designed several contemporary landmark buildings in Xi’an, including the Shaanxi History Museum, Tang Lotus Garden, and Famen Temple. He also participated in the design of the Beijing Museum of Revolutionary History and the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.

Zhang Jinqiu has been appointed as the chief architect of the China Capital Construction Design Group since 1987 and has remained in this position to this day. Zhang was also among the first recipients of the Xi'an Science and Technology Award for her numerous contributions, and in 2011, she was elected a member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering.

• Marta Ochoa - Casa Antillón.

Marta Ochoa Castillo was born in Huesca and has shown a restlessness and artistic interest from a young age, as she has said on more than one occasion. She is an architect from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid, where she completed her thesis in 2019, as well as from the University of Chile, where she took an exchange year and did her professional internship at the ELEMENTAL studio, run by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena. In addition, once she finished her studies at the school, she worked for a year at Foster + Partners.

In 2019, Marta founded, together with her colleagues and friends Ismael López, Emmanuel Álvarez and Yosi Negrín, Casa Antillón, a collective that works between art, design and architecture, and that arises from the artistic interest of young people, who are in charge, through their studio, of carrying out projects from home or business renovations, interior design projects, window dressing, to commissioning exhibitions.

Marta has worked as a cartoonist in the Netflix art department in 2021, as well as as a teacher at the European Institute of Design as a professor of Art Direction and Creative Direction for Retail. She currently works as an art director, creative consultant, freelancer, and architect in Madrid.

• Katt Both.

Katt Both was a student at the Bauhaus who was born in Waldkappel, Germany, in 1905.

She studied from 1924 to 1928, and although photography was not formally taught at the Dessau school at that time, she participated in an extraordinary experimentation outside the academy with László Moholy-Nagy, with whom she coincided and shared interests. It was there, despite studying furniture design, that Katt Both discovered different photographic techniques that led her to delve deeper and gain recognition as an artist in the field of photography.

Katt Both was also able to take advantage of the close network that the avant-garde established at the Bauhaus, after finishing her studies in Dessau, she entered the architectural career. She also dedicated her professional activity to working as a photographer and furniture designer.

In 1929, she began working in Otto Haesler's studio as the first female architect, where she was involved in the office's most important construction projects, including the Dammerstock residential complex in Karlsruhe, the Rothenberg residential complex in Kassel, the Friedrich-Ebert residential complex in Rathenow, the youth hostel in Müden, and the Aschrotthaus in Kassel. In Celle, she was involved in the planning of the main residence and the Blumläger Feld residential complex.

After 1945, she settled as an architect in Kassel, Germany, where she continued to work until her death in 1985.

After leaving the Bauhaus, Both worked as a photographer and furniture designer in different parts of Germany, including Berlin. Later, in 1929, she began working as the first female architect in Otto Haesler's studio, where she participated in the most important projects, such as the Dammerstock residential complex in Karlsruhe or the Rothenberg residential complex in Kassel.

She devoted the rest of her main activity to architecture, and settled in Kassel, where she continued to work until her death in Kassel, Germany in 1985.

Part of her work is included in the collections of the Getty Museum, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

• Natalie Griffin de Blois.

Natalie Griffin de Blois was born in 1921 in Paterson, New Jersey, to a family of three generations of engineers, which led to her interest in architecture from an early age.

Her educational path began with her entry into the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, and later, after attending Columbia University, in 1944 she graduated in architecture, studies which she combined working with the firms Babcock & Wilcox and Frederick John Kiesler.

She worked for the New York architectural firm, Ketchum, Gina and Sharpe, when, after "rejecting the affection" of one of the architects, she was fired. Shortly after, she joined the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), where she began to be recognized and conceived as a "pioneer" and a strong figure in a "male-dominated world." Natalie began designing large-scale buildings on Park Avenue in New York, including the Pepsi Cola headquarters, the Lever House skyscraper and the Union Carbide building. She worked with Gordon Bunshaft on the Pepsi building, which was completed in 1960 and was praised by critics.

She rose through the ranks and in 1962 was transferred to the SOM headquarters in Chicago, where she established and created the Chicago Women in Architecture Foundation, and designed landmark buildings such as the Equitable Building.

In 1980, she began teaching at the University of Texas School of Architecture and was a member of the faculty of architecture until 1993.

De Blois died in July 2013 at the age of 92 in Chicago, and in 2014, she was posthumously recognized and awarded for her work in the design of the Pepsi Cola headquarters and the Union Carbide building by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.

• Leila Araghian, Diba Tensile Architecture. 

Leila Araghian was born in 1983 in Tehran, Iran, where she began her studies in architecture at Shahid Beheshti University. Later, at the University of British Columbia, she received her master's degree in architecture and won the UBC Henry Elder Alumni Award for Architecture.

In 2005, she founded Diba Tensile Architecture, the first company specializing in architecture, design and manufacture of membrane and tensile structures in Iran, with a unique approach that seeks to integrate architecture and structure through a sensitive approach to all details.

In 2014, the Tabita Bridge was inaugurated in Tehran, a project that she directed and for which she has received various awards such as the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Popular Choice award in the Highways & Bridges category of the 2015 Architizer A Awards.

Despite her international projection and her work on various projects and awards, her international exposure has been restricted, as in the case of the World Architecture Festival, where she was unable to participate due to sanctions against Iran, which the architect herself denounces since, according to her, she should not suffer any sanctions for dedicating herself to a cultural activity that has nothing to do with the politics of her country.