Women in Architecture

Architecture as a regulated, professional vocation did not emerge in Britain until the 19th century. Before then, wealthy patrons would often collaborate on designs with architects or master masons.

A wealthy and powerful Tudor woman, used her fortune to build grand houses like Chatsworth and Hardwick Hall, both in Derbyshire. Hardwick Hall, designed with Elizabethan architect Robert Smythson, showcases Bess of Hardwick's influence and keen eye for design as an original patron of architecture.

Another significant patron, Elizabeth Wilbraham was closely involved with the building projects she commissioned, including Wotton House in Buckinghamshire. It is even speculated that she directly designed hundred of buildings around England.

Little documentation survives to support or refute this, but Wilbraham was certainly highly interested and knowledgeable in the design of buildings. She owned a translated copy of Andrea Palladio's architectural treatise I Quattro Libri, which she heavily annotated.

Elspeth Douglas McClelland (1879-1920) was an architect, writer and suffragist. She was best known for being delivered as a 'human letter' to Downing Street, and also wrote newspaper columns about architecture and interior design, after training at the Royal Polytechnic.

In 1898, Ethel Charles (1871-1962) made history as the first woman to become a member of the RIBA. She was closely followed by her sister, Bessie Charles (1869-1932), in 1900.

Excluded from the major commissions that remained largely the preserve of male architects, Ethel Charles' work mainly included small-scale domestic projects such as these designs for labourers' cottages. 

By the mid-20th century, the traditional "boys' club" of British architecture began to open up. By the 1947 Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM), conference delegates included Sadie Speight, Barbara Randall, Monica Pidgeon, Jane Drew and Minnette de Silva.

A very talented photographer, Pidgeon used the camera extensively from the 1960s onwards, capturing both people and architecture. Her photo-journalistic approach produced memorable images that convey very strongly a sense of time and place, and have an almost cinematic feel. 

Monica Pidgeon’s archive is one of the little-known gems of the RIBA Photographs Collection.

Zaha Hadid launched her own architectural practice in 1980, cementing her course to become one the world's most famous architects.

Hadid made this design for a reimagined Trafalgar Square as a student at the Architectural Association. She gifted it to a fellow student, Anthony Feldman, for his birthday.