EARLY WOMEN IN NZ ARCHITECTURE - ELIZABETH COX LECTURE SERIES IN WELLINGTON

She looks specifically at the period 1900-1940s, and at the call by a sector of the New Zealand community for women to become architects. This presentation explores why, and tells the stories of those who answered the call. How did they contribute to the field and why have they mainly disappeared from our architectural history today?

In the three lectures, Elizabeth told wonderfully-rich stories and managed to set a scene of architectural practice in the early Twentieth Century in New Zealand. We particularly enjoyed the social snapshot of the early Twentieth Century, seen so clearly in the life of Lucy Greenish, who contended with the pain of a secret adoption in Australia in order to have a life in architecture. A radical woman in so many ways, and not only because she was the first NZIA female associate member and quite possibly the first to set up practice.

The mihi whakatau was given by Dr Deidre Brown followed by wiata led by Amber Ruckes.

Bill McKay, Senior Lecturer at The School of Architecture and Planning, has a slot on the RNZ Nine To Noon programme and here talks about attending Elizabeth Cox's Lecture in Auckland during the Festival of Architecture, amongst other topics.

You can hear Elizabeth Cox talk with Jesse Mulligan on RNZ on the 'Social History of Buildings', 9 April 2018.

Elizabeth belongs to the Professional Historians' Association of New Zealand / Aotearoa.(PHANZA)

words by Lynda Simmons