Federico Monsalve has reviewed Making Space: A history of New Zealand women in architecture, which is edited by Elizabeth Cox, in HOME magazine this month:
‘It is perhaps quite telling that the first time a female architect was awarded the Gold Medal — the top honour of the Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects — was only last year, to Julie Stout. This lack of female representation in the industry is nothing new, and what began as an essay by Elizabeth Cox about the life and times of Lucy Greenish — "the first woman to register as an architect in Aotearoa New Zealand” (1914) — unearthed a poorly documented troupe of hundreds of females “training and working as architects, architectural assistants, and draughtswomen” in the period between 1900 and 1940. This printed celebration is written by 29 of the most accomplished female academics and journalists with an architecture focus. Although the editor does acknowledge the arbitrary nature of the gender grouping in an industry that can only exist through collaboration, this tome is a timely and much-needed record of individuals who were willfully omitted or ignored
with regard to having their brass plaques on New Zealand facades.’
