The IAWA Center (International Archive of Women in Architecture) announces the program for its 2025 Symposium: Building Connections: Networks Past, Present and Future.

Taking place in-person in Blacksburg, VA and online, the symposium celebrates and uncovers networks of women in architecture, historically, today, and speculatively. Five paper sessions will address topics such as the individuals, organizations, and publications that underwrote networks of professional female architects, and will feature a panel featuring recent Milka Blisnakov Research Award winners, as well as roundtable of contemporary practitioners building networks today. The keynote talk will be delivered by notable architect and urban designer, Hansy Better Barraza, co-founder of Boston-based Studio Luz.

// Programme //

I Thursday March 20
09:30 am I Welcome and Opening Remarks
10:00 am I Roundtable: Networks in Action

Feminist spatial Practices: A Global Network and Community to Celebrate Diversity in Architecture and Design
Virginia, Renske, Abri, & Bryony

Nuestras Arquitectas: Building and Expanding Networks to Document and Highlight Women in Architecture
Inés Moisset & Carolina Quiroga

I Am Not a Self-Made Black Woman Architect
Ntetleng Orepa Mosidi

Riding the Vortex
Kathryn Prigmore

Lynda Simmons
A+W NZ Timeline – Filling Gaps in the Architectural History of Aotearoa New Zealand

Begdid Laguerre
Bridging the Gap: Expanding Mentorship Networks Beyond Cultural Identities

11:00 a.m. I Q&A
Panel discussion (25 min)

12:15 I Lobby Talk: 1x1 Japan in the Lobby, Cowgill Hall
01:00 p.m. I Lunch Recess

02:00 p.m. I Keynote
Hansy Better Barraza
On Connections and the Collective Commons: Reclaiming Women’s Authorship in the Built Environment.

3:45 p.m I Paper Session 1: Publications as Networks
Kathleen James
Chloethiel Woodard Smith: Supported by a Sisterhood of Journalists

Chakrabortuy Manon
Some Leads to Trace the Positions of Women in the Discursive Network of Architectural Criticism from the 1930s to the 1990s in France

Knockaert María Soledad Larraín Salinas & Sara Margarita Toledo Durán
Published, Female Architects as Authors. The Case of the Magazines AUCA and CA Between 1965-1989 in Chile

4:30 p.m. I Q&A
Panel Discussion (25 min)

5:30 p.m. IReception at the Art+Architecture Library

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I Friday, March 21

09:00 a.m. I Paper Session 2: Building Connections through Organizations

Inês Leonor Nunes
From Lorna Wright to Minnette De Silva: The Women’s Networks Behind the Watapuluwa Housing Scheme in Sri Lanka

Laura Hindelang
Fraternité: Networks and Spatial Activities to Improve the Lives of Women in 19th-Century Switzerland

Helena Mattsson & Arram Eckerbom
Acting Against Exclusion: The Swedish Network ATHENA and the Athena Houses
Veronique Boone
The Network of Women Architects in the International Council of Women – A Shared Commitment on Architecture (1919-1970)

Carolina Quiroga
Women’s Advisory Committee VAC: The Heritage of Feminist Networks in Dutch Architectural Modernity

10:30 a.m. I Q&A
Panel Discussion (25 min)

11:00 a.m. I 40x40 Venice Exhibit Preview & Archive Tour
12:00 I Lunch Recess

01:30 p.m. I Paper Session 3: Network Builders

Entre Líneas: Manola Ogalde & Barbara Rozas
An Island of Infinite Bridges: Chile’s International Dialogues by Women in Architecture Before the Eighties

Apolline Vranken & Elisabeth Gérard
The Networks of Simone Guillissen-Hoa (1916-1996): From Communist Resistance to Feminist Advocacy

Veronique Boone & Johanna Sluiter
Flying Out: The Informal International Network of Women Architects from 35 rue de Sèvres

Alexandra Staub & Clarissa Albrecht
Who is an Architect? Building for Women, with Women.

2:30 p.m. I Q&A
Panel Discussion (25 min)

3:30 p.m. I Building Networks through the Archive: The Milka Bliznakov Research Prize

Lori Brown & Karen Burns
UIFA and networks of solidarity

James Heard
Ojai’s Pink Moment: Zelma Wilson and Regional Planning During the 1960s in Southern California

Fabio Marino
Liane Zimbler’s Architectural Journey: Questioning the Interior Decorator Cliché from Vienna to California

Eva Alvarez & Carlos Gomez
Building Connections Through Feminist Editorial Work: The Contributions Of Barbara Goldstein And Susana Torre

04:30 p.m. I Q&A
Panel Discussion (25 min.)
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Click here for the full program: https://iawacenter.aad.vt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_IAWA-SYMPOSIUM-SCHEDULE_3-6-25.pdf

Attendance is free, but registration is required:
https://virginiatech.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=LHuz1kMmZxAECHrPeIW9eQ%3D%3D