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Document Details : Title: Les premières architectes femmes à La Cambre, Bruxelles, 1927-1950 Author(s): BOONE, Veronique , GÉRARD, Elisabeth Journal: Tijdschrift voor Interieurgeschiedenis en Design Volume: 45 Date: 2023 Pages: 33-45 DOI: 10.2143/GBI.45.0.3292626 Abstract : This article offers an overview of the status of women within the Institut Supérieur des Arts Décoratifs of La Cambre, and in particular its architecture section, during the first years of its existence. Founded in 1927 by Henry van de Velde, the school is characterised by its large number of female students, at least when compared to other architecture courses in Brussels and in Belgium. Between 1930 and 1950 ten women completed their architecture studies there. Among them was Claire Henrotin, the first woman architect to graduate in Belgium, as well as Simone Guillissen-Hoa and Odette Filippone, female representatives of modernism who have gradually been reintegrated into the narrative of Belgian architecture. Although nine of these ten first women architects of La Cambre did produce buildings during more or less fulfilled careers, their names have often been forgotten. Several systemic mechanisms, or mechanisms specific to the Belgian context, highlighted in and borrowed from gender studies, enable us to take a critical look at the lives and careers of these women. The innovative approach by Van de Velde within La Cambre attracted those women who were tempted by architecture, but they could not escape the prevailing sexism and the material realities linked to their status as women. Several observations are discussed here, including the disappearance of women behind their male collaborators, an abandonment of the architect’s profession in the face of material difficulties, the modernist collective imagination which associates architecture with virility, and the difficulty of obtaining prestigious commisions. More fundamentally, these observations raise questions about our way of writing the history of architecture, which to this day remains not very inclusive and therefore biased. This article aims to highlight the shortcomings and omissions of this history and proposes, through these trajectories of women architects, avenues for reflection in order to improve the integration of gender issues into the modern architectural narrative. |
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