Sarah Treadwell - Limited Visibility: Portraits of Women Architects

Using this Architecture+Women•NZ database as the resource, Dr Sarah Treadwell and Nicole Allen have published an article that looks at portraits of women architects in the latest Architectural Theory Review. Published by Taylor Francis.

Abstract below:

This paper considers the visibility of women architects across three New Zealand sites: the institutional architecture journal, the national architecture award system and a local website that allows for self-representation. The website, Architecture + Women , was set up in 2011 in anticipation of an exhibition of the work of New Zealand women architects planned for 2013 as an anniversary of an earlier event, “Constructive Agenda”, held in 1993. The website accumulates images of women in New Zealand who identify as architects. The paper considers the portrayal of women architects in each of the three sites, juxtaposing a sociological viewpoint with the biographical, seen as distinct yet overlapping modes of representation. Five portraits from the website are selected for detailed discussion as they reflect upon representations of femininity, colonial encounters, nature and the limits of the discipline—issues that are persistent for women architects in New Zealand.