Common Space Platform. Open panel: Is the Default Architect Still Male? Rethinking Gender, Power, and Presence in Architecture
Date: 4.06.2025, 18:00
Place: The Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK), Marszałkowska 34/50, 00-647 Warszawa
Title: Is the Default Architect Still Male? Rethinking Gender, Power, and Presence in Architecture
Moderation: Dominika Janicka (Fair Building Studio / Bal Architektek)
Panelists: Eszter Davida (KEK), Karolina Częczek (Only If Architecture), Helena Huber-Doudová (National Gallery in Prague)
The panel discussion explores the evolving role of gender in architecture, focusing on how personal experiences, power structures, and feminist perspectives shape the field.
In the first part, invited experts will present their work and experiences related to gender in architecture, setting the stage for deeper discussion. The second part will focus on how gender influences careers in architecture, with panelists discussing the „default male” assumption in education and work, and how being women affects their reception by clients and institutions. The conversation will highlight the underrepresentation of women’s stories in architectural history and the impact of this absence. Panelists will also discuss whether younger architects are less constrained by gender expectations and the lessons from overlooked women architects.
In the final segment, the panel will explore the influence of feminist perspectives on design, leadership, and representation. We will discuss how more women in the field affects architectural practice, the representation of women in media and awards, and ways to improve inclusivity.
Dominika Janicka is an architect and activist who runs FAIR BUILDING Studio – a hybrid design and research practice. She teaches design at Jan Kochanowski University, co-founded the Bal Architektek collective, and served as director of the Institute of Design in Kielce from 2021 to 2025.
Eszter Dávida is an architect and project manager, who graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Ecomomics in 2016. She founded several bottom-up organizations focused on education about contemporary architecture, urban and design questions; she has 12 years of experience in this field. She joined the Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Center in 2007 as a volunteer. Currently she is a member of the board of KÉK and leads the Pecha Kucha Night Budapest and the DANUrB+ (Interreg – Danube Urban Brand) program, where she focuses on fostering local communities to participate in urban issues on a regional and international scale. She also works as an architect on urban planning projects.
Karolina Częczek is a Principal of Only If—, a New York City-based design practice for architecture. Only If’s projects span a range of different types and scales, from interiors, to single- and multiple-family housing, to larger-scale urban planning, research, and speculation. Only If’s People’s Pool project is part of the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, “Architecture Now: New York, New Publics,” featuring projects that envision a more accessible, sustainable, and equitable New York. Czeczek is a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Wirt Winchester Travel Fellowship from Yale School of Architecture. Czeczek previously worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and Hong Kong.
Helena Huber-Doudová is a curator of the Collection of Architecture of the National Gallery Prague, Helena Huber-Doudová focuses especially on post-1945 architecture and its media overlap. As a research assistant and international curator of the “International Museum Fellowship”, she prepared an exhibition on Otto Neurath and Fritz Kahn’s infographics (2016–2017) in cooperation with the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the University of Erfurt, and the Museum of Books and Writing in Leipzig. From 2011 to 2012, Doudová interned at Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne museum of architecture. She received several scholarships: DAAD, Aktion Oesterreich, and others.
Participation in the event is free of charge, but the number of places is limited. Registration is mandatory. Please use the registration form: https://forms.office.com/e/kwJ0umX7xr
Submission of the form does not constitute confirmation of participation. We will contact You by email within two working days of submission.
The event is part of a Conference summarising the international Common Space Platform project. Its aim is to strengthen international cooperation of institutions engaged in architectural culture, urban planning and promotion of knowledge of architectural heritage.
The entire Conference will be held in English.
Partners
Local partners
Supporting partners
Media partner
Project funded by the “Inspiring Culture” program of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
