FOUR EARLY WOMEN ARCHITECTS IN VICTORIA

Historical discourse on the careers of women architects and their contribution to architecture is often conceived within a conventional and traditional structure where their achievements are matched to those of male practitioners discussed in mainstream architectural histories. This constrains the discussion of women architects and their contributions to architecture. Biographies of the four earliest women architects in Victoria are presented here: each woman has a different background and a different career; and none are conventionally successful in architecture. However, their experiences highlight a breadth and diversity in architectural practice, illustrating the difficulties in placing non-conventional contributions within history and challenging the traditional conception of success in architecture.     

Differences between young architects' and non-architects' aesthetic evaluation of buildings

Previous studies showed significant differences between expert architects and laypeople in aesthetic evaluations of buildings. However, studies exploring the aesthetic preferences of architecture students are lacking. The present study focused on a population of students and young architects to explore the aesthetic opinion shift within architectural careers. This study was intended to be a conceptual replication of the study of Brown and Gifford (2001) in a Central European context. A total of 109 participants (21–28 years old) evaluated 40 randomized pictures of houses to detect whether non-architecture undergraduates and fresh graduates of architecture would express different aesthetic preferences compared with their peers from the general population. The study also examined whether laypersons can predict the preferences of architects, and vice versa. Results show a trend that is contrary to the original research, that is, young architects and laypeople did not significantly differ in their aesthetic evaluations of the given stimuli. Analyses revealed high prediction ability in young architects and their non-architect peers. Moreover, the existing professional experience of young architects had no influence on the accuracy of their estimations. Findings suggest that the professional shift in architects’ expertise is obscured at an early career stage, as revealed in their aesthetic preferences.     

风景园林社会责任LSR的实现

责任时代已经来临,时代的发展要求创造人类美好生活环境的风景园林行业承担更多的社会责任.在西方发达国家和日本,风景园林行业的社会责任已经成为推动行业发展、提高行业地位、衡量行业业绩的重要指标.中国风景园林目前正处于前所未有的快速发展阶段.在新的挑战下,本行业应该结合国情制定我国风景园林社会责任LSR制度,风景园林师更应该树立社会责任的价值观.在政府引导、社会监督等机制的综合协调下,风景园林社会责任的实现必将引领我国风景园林行业走向新的高峰,在世界范围内发出中国风景园林的责任之音.     

微光徐行——论台湾现代建筑中的女性建筑师角色

台湾建筑师界一直是男性建筑师的天下,1949年之后,始有第一位女性建筑师的出现——修泽兰老师,接着有王秀莲、黄秋月、王秋华3位老师为个中翘楚。在她们事迹的激励下,女性就读建筑科系的人数渐增,2013年注册女建筑师173位,占总注册建筑师的5%;1999年921地震后的重建参与,使新一代女建筑师备受注目及重视。     

英国建筑师事务所对新人培养的启示

作者借鉴了英国和欧洲其他国家的经验,并针对国内的情况 ,提出了青年建筑师培养的三条建议。同时论述了研究和创新对于今天青年建筑师培养和建筑行业发展的重要性。     

‘History is not the Past but Another Mightier Presence’: the founding of the institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich and its effects on Swiss Architecture

The Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) was founded in 1967 explicitly to facilitate exchange between the architects and the historians of architecture teaching in the Faculty of Architecture at Zurich's famous Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH). The founding members, Adolf Max Vogt, Paul Hofer, Bernhard Hoesli and others, encouraged a younger generation of architects to deepen and widen their knowledge of the history of architecture by working in the institute as research assistants and often writing doctoral dissertations. But it was very much due to the catalyst of the guest professor Aldo Rossi that the link between architecture and the history of architecture seriously influenced design strategy. Two of the many research collaborators at the gta who proved to be particularly important for their fellow students were Bruno Reichlin and Martin Steinmann. With the help of history they developed a ‘recherché patiente’ into the semiology of building and took this as a starting point for the design process, which influenced a whole generation of young architects to develop what became the new Swiss architecture so lauded today.     

Dissenting Designers: Reading Activism and Advocacy in Architecture through a Sociological Lens

Abstract

The history of American architecture includes many examples of activists and reformers who sought to make the profession more inclusive, just, and socially engaged. This article provides a review of the academic literature discussing the efforts of such architects in order to identify historic trends in the study of activist architects in the United States—this paper’s focus. After an initial period of growth and consolidation in the profession, contemporary forms of social engagement emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Subsequent decades have seen many of these efforts continue, or be revived, alongside increased academic interest in these same efforts. The article then reviews three areas of sociological research pertinent to the scholarship on socially engaged design. These focus on institutional change within the profession, the “logics” that guide architectural work, and the relationship between the profession and the academy. This article explores these institutional perspectives for their potential to complement frameworks for analyzing dissent in design.     

Explorations in specifying construction price forecast loss functions

Currently, skills shortages are prompting the UK government to introduce initiatives intended to break down notions of stereotyped employment and attract women to non-traditional, male-dominated industries such as construction. Thus, it seems timely to revisit a study of the lived experience of non-traditionally employed women, conducted in Northern Ireland in the mid-1990s. Data from this study are presented here, specifically contextualized within R. M. Kanter's (American Journal of Sociology, 82, 965-90) framework of tokenism. Utilizing this framework, the paper examines the relationship that exists between the sexes (women as ‘tokens’ and males as ‘dominants’) in the non-traditional settings examined, indicating that barriers remain that women must surmount for gender equality to be achieved. The paper concludes by briefly examining one initiative working pro-actively to remove these barriers, providing women with greater opportunities to pursue non-traditional careers.     

Architecture-building: mobilising the lessons of the Survey Popular Architecture in Portugal

Within the history of Portuguese architecture, a survey conducted on vernacular dwellings in the mid-1950s has a significant place. This article examines how this survey has been remembered and enhanced, mobilised and updated ever since, playing a part in the empowerment of architecture as a discipline, as a profession, and as a matter of culture in Portugal. The main argument is that the collective and individual recollection of the survey has extolled the aesthetic and ethical lessons it provided for architects’ practice, activating the symbolic capital of an expression of culture long rooted in Portuguese discourses of national identity. This politics of memory has contributed to the recognition of Portuguese architects’ authority, autonomy and identity as a profession.     

Sex segregation in construction organizations in Bangladesh and Thailand

Why do more women in Bangladesh study civil engineering than in Thailand, but fewer Bangladeshi women take employment in construction companies? The primary data for answering this question were drawn from questionnaire surveys with 204 professional engineers, in‐depth interviews with 80 professional women engineers, and informal discussions with employers/representatives in construction organizations in Bangladesh and Thailand. The findings underline the importance of organizational policy, practices and culture in creating a women‐friendly workplace in both countries. The findings suggest that despite the reinforcement of societal gender expectations, organizations are able to create their own organizational culture and practices, which could help to utilize women's talent and improve their professional careers.     

梓人三问

建筑是一门在中国备受误解的学科。不论是从最早的将“architecture”译为“建筑”而非“营造,”还是后来的大学普遍将建筑列为工科,或是大多数人对于建筑和工程的混淆不清—这其中都包含了众多对建筑以及建筑师的误解。然而早在柳宗元的《梓人传》中就已经显现出了中国传统文化对建筑以及建筑师的理解。建筑究竟是一门专而深的理工科,还是一门包容万象的综合学科？建筑师究竟是面面俱到的匠人,还是不拘小节的将相？建筑师的职责与能力又有哪些契合与分歧？带着这三个疑问,我们打开一代宗师柳宗元的名作《梓人传》。     

扎根本土,阐释现代--当代瑞士建筑师的启示

当代瑞士建筑师的创作虽然不尽相同、却都在不同的层面表达了建筑的时代特征。这一时代特征正是他们将瑞士本土文化和现代建筑思想批判性结合的结果。这对于国内建筑的发展具有很大的借鉴意义。     

业余建筑和建筑之余

人们习惯认为建筑师是一个自说自话的行业,建筑不能定义和讨论,它的解决方案注定是"终极性"的,但是在现实中,如果没有外部情境和实际的载体,建筑就难以得到理解。建筑的互文性和物质性使得一位建筑师很难绝对"专业"文章讨论了建筑师行业的"专业性"如何在历史上形成并发生变化,同时,强调了建筑师回归"文艺复兴人"角色的必要性。     

话语权的获得——回顾西方建筑师职业的成长

该文试图通过回顾西方建筑师职业形成和发展的历史过程,搭建一个正确看待当代西方建筑师职业状况的认知平台.通过了解他们的历史,重新认知当代中国建筑师的市场行为,进行真正的"横向对比",而不是简单的境遇攀比.做到着眼历史、放眼未来,为我国当代建筑师职业的健康发展寻求出路.     

The poetics of practice-based research writing

This essay explores the canonical image of the architect to emerge in the wake of women's entry into the profession at the turn of the twentieth century, analysed through the lens of writings on women architects published in Germany between 1900 and 1920. Disseminated broadly to a professional and general audience, this discourse addressed the proper qualities of the architect and assessed whether women were fit for the job. The gendered canonical image to emerge from these debates resisted the feminine and the maternal, and female architects at the time responded by adopting or challenging these exclusions. Recent films depicting ‘good’ architects as bad parents suggest the tenacity of fin-de-siècle stereotypes, raising the question of how old myths frame new narratives that continue to limit and proscribe.     

Book reviews

Non‐standard working arrangements are traditionally associated with insecure employment and thus said to act as a constraint on women architects' careers. The working patterns of 37 women architects have been examined using a career life history approach and findings indicate that to follow non‐standard working patterns in professional employment need not necessarily serve to constrain and may even enhance women's career development. Many of the women architects following non‐standard forms of employment find that it has been beneficial to their career. The recurring theme from these interviews was the need to be able to follow a career but on certain terms. The time commitment required prior to qualification provides a strong motivation to continue working throughout their working lives.     

从米开朗琪罗到帕拉第奥 意大利文艺复兴时期建筑师职业的多源性与专业训练的多样化

自意大利文艺复兴时期开始,建筑与绘画和雕塑一样成为"博雅"艺术,建筑师逐渐脱离中世纪的工匠阶层,大大提高了自身的社会地位。为了描述文艺复兴时期建筑师职业的多源性与专业训练的多样化,文章通过三位出身和经历各异的建筑师来作具体分析:米开朗琪罗、帕拉第奥和珊索维诺。他们对后世建筑师的成长道路有深远影响。     

Striving to achieve it all: men and work-family-life balance in Sweden and the UK

Although there is a vast literature on issues of work-life balance, most of the research is grounded on the traditional view of work-life balance as a female-oriented entitlement. So far little attention has been paid to how men balance their work-life situations, especially the ‘new men’ who are keen to share the family care. We contribute to filling this gap by critically examining how male academics in construction-related departments at universities in Sweden and the UK construct their relationships with family and work. Narrative analysis was applied on in-depth interviews with seven academics from each country, who were at different phases in their careers. Three core narratives emerged from the data: family connected with partner; work as key priority; and desire to pursue personal projects, all of which competed for the narrators’ sparse time. The narrative that by far received most space and most storylines in all the interviews was ‘work as priority’, implying that in spite of gender equality policies and campaigns, work-life balance remains a female-oriented concern. Both Swedish and British men in our sample found juggling family and life most challenging. This work-family-life triad left many feeling that they had no time to do a good job in any sphere and in Sweden in particular combination pressure was intense. Curiously, despite these tensions and increasing demands for many of our respondents work remains a positive construct, possibly because of the strong conceptual identification of ‘self’ as an academic.     

Book review

In response to impending skills shortages and changing employment patterns, the UK construction industry recently has made considerable efforts to attract more women to its professions. However, despite their increasing representation, there are indications that women experience difficulties in developing their careers within the industry. This research investigated the careers of men and women working for large construction companies, in order to establish the gender determined influences on women's career progression. A primarily qualitative methodology was employed for the research, in which career profiles were developed through ethnographic interviews with 41 matched pairs of male and female employees. This allowed the gender specific determinants of careers to be established across a range of different organizations, and from informants at different vocational and life-cycle stages. The analysis resulted in the formulation of a set of eight interrelated theoretical models, from which a theory of women's career development was constructed. The theory reflects the belief that the construction workplace is a competitive and conflictual environment, where women are overtly and covertly discriminated against by men, who use structural systems to undermine their participation. The women interviewed were found to have dealt with these barriers in a way which perpetuated existing work cultures. If reflected throughout the industry, this would suggest the existence of a self-fulfilling cycle of women's continued under-achievement. The paper puts forward the radical proposition that women should not be attracted to the industry unless steps are taken to moderate its exclusionary and discriminatory culture.