Five Women Who Rewrote Architecture’s Rulebook
Architecture has long been billed as a boys’ club, but these women didn’t just knock on the door—they redesigned the whole building. Here are five trailblazers who shaped the 20th and 21st centuries with work that still turns heads.
1. Eileen Gray (1878–1976) – The Quiet Modernist Who Out-Cooled Le Corbusier
While the boys were busy drawing boxes on stilts, Irish designer Eileen Gray was crafting sensual, human-scaled masterpieces. Her 1929 villa E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin is basically the sexiest house ever built: sliding screens, built-in furniture, cork floors, and a color palette that whispers instead of shouts. Le Corbusier was so obsessed (and jealous) that he painted garish murals all over it while she was away. Gray’s comeback? She lived to 98 and watched the world finally recognize her as the true genius of the pair.
Iconic piece: the adjustable Bibendum chair (still in production by ClassiCon) and the E-1027 table you’ve definitely seen on every mid-century mood board.
2. Zaha Hadid (1950–2016) – The Queen of Curves
Before “parametricism” was a buzzword, Zaha was drawing impossible swoops on napkins. Born in Baghdad, trained at the AA in London, she waited decades for clients brave enough to build her visions. When they finally did—Heydar Aliyev Center (2012), MAXXI Museum (2009), the London Aquatics Centre—she delivered buildings that look like they’re in motion even when standing still. First woman to win the Pritzker Prize (2004), and she did it wearing Issey Miyake pleats and zero apologies.
Fun fact: her fire station for Vitra (1993) was so radical the firefighters complained it was “unfunctional.” She never looked back.
3. Denise Scott Brown (1931–) – The Half of Venturi Scott Brown They Tried to Erase
When Robert Venturi won the Pritzker in 1991, Denise—his equal partner in life and work—wasn’t even mentioned. The ultimate middle finger to the old guard. Together they wrote Learning from Las Vegas (1972), basically inventing postmodern architecture by celebrating billboards, parking lots, and neon. Her urban planning work in South Africa and Philadelphia proved that cities belong to people, not just monuments.
She’s still out here at 94 calling BS on sexism in the profession.
4. Kazuyo Sejima (1956–) – Minimalism That Feels Like a Hug
Half of the unstoppable duo SANAA (with Ryue Nishizawa), Sejima won the Pritzker in 2010—the same year she directed the Venice Architecture Biennale. Her buildings—21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Grace Farms in Connecticut—are all translucent walls, gentle curves, and light that feels curated. She makes Brutalism look clumsy and Mies look uptight.
Signature move: roofs that float so lightly you’re never sure where the building ends and the sky begins.
5. Norma Merrick Sklarek (1926–2012) – The First Black Woman Licensed in NY and CA
While others got the spotlight, Norma was getting the job done. First Black woman architect licensed in New York (1954) and California (1962). She was project manager for Gruen Associates on the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and Terminal 1 at LAX. When clients wouldn’t meet with a Black woman, she sent white male juniors to present her drawings. Later co-founded Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond, the largest woman-owned firm of its time.
Quiet legend status: the AIA’s Norma Sklarek Mentorship Award is now named in her honor.
The Takeaway
These women didn’t just participate—they expanded what architecture could be: softer, braver, more inclusive, more playful. Next time someone says “women in architecture are having a moment,” hand them this list and remind them the moment started over a century ago.