Construir en Paridad

BARCELONA   

 April /27, 28, 29/ 2005

BUILDING IN PARITY

Building in parity was an exhibition initiated by the Andalusia Women Institute with the purpose of “Building the future: an opportunity of jobs for women”, that belonged to an Equal program financed by the European Community.

As Teresa Jiménez, the Andalusia Women Institute directoy, said:

“Building in Parity is to transfer -in a professional manner- the rich female assests to the world of construction; It is to understand that women´ s qualities and knowledge are so necessary. It is to eliminate stereotypes and to value the quality of their work.

It is to accept and respect differences. It is to give all the same opportunities in life and work. It is to assume – both women and society- their own identity, as the best way for integration.

It is to find a new social model to balance labour, the familiar and personal life, distributing equitably responsibilities, rights and duties, spaces and times, to ease the egalitarian share of times. It is understanding construction as the expression of a state of loving to live, where eveyone has a place.

Women and men need an egalitarian, flexible and multifunctional city, a city of places. Places to live and to participate with one another.  Places designed for acceptance, integration and to assure all citizens a voice".

The exhibition was developed in three emotional journeys  related with three different spaces:

A Journey through MEMORY: Women Pioneers. This journey talks to us about women genealogy within the European construction area. It also describes to us  the history "never written" in ordinary books (the presence of absence), about  these women’s dreams.  Women who started from nothing, participating in vanguard movements and in a new way of understanding life, through their writings, their drawings,  their built spaces, their fortress, their boldness and their generosity.

A journey through women´ s work: Women constructors.  Divided in four fundamental elements and one implied element:
    Air: Women who build in the air.
    Earth: Women who build in touch with earth.
    Fire: Women who build so the fire burns.
    Water: Women who build so the water flows.
    The fifth element:  women contribution. 

A journey through inhabitated spaces: designed with "gender perspective". Divided in ONE EXPLICATIVE PANNEL and four others with pictures and project descriptions of spaces built by women architects, and another traditional or actual spaces in architecture.
What are spaces built with "gender perspective"? a recipe for "gender mainstreaming": Ingredients: FLEXIBILITY / MOBILITY / SECURITY / EQUALITY

Walking through these journeys, that in many different ways can be visited, with different rhythms and interests, immersed in a topological space, created by textile tulle hanging by the ceiling. So like in a ritual, we experiment unreal or magical sensations, a sensation of being in a forest. 

It is the unconsciousness, that is hidden, maternal life, the infinite, that connects us with the essential of life: the emotional world.

Exhibition Organizers: Cristina García -Rosales, WOMEN WHO BUILD Architect
Sponsorship: the Andalusia Institute for Women & Architecture School of Barcelona
Place: Architecture School of Barcelona Hall
Dates: April 25th-29th

BUILDING FROM THE INSIDE

“Building from the inside” brings together architectural work designed by several generations of women architects or teams where women played significant roles. The work belonged to three different countries located in the Mediterranean coast.

This travelling exhibition was created as an imaginative, participative and fullof life activity adding new projects in each of the countries and towns it  was exhibited in.

Initially, the journey began with thirty-five architectural works carried out in Spain. These pieces of work were selected through an open call made to Spanish women architects. The first places where it was shown were: the University of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid (May 1999); the Ministry of Labour  Room, Madrid (April-May 2000); San Telmo Provincial Museum, Town Council of San Sebastian (April 2001) and San Prudencio Room, Town Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz (September 2001).

In December 2002 the Exhibition was inaugurated in the Exhibition Hall of Order of Architects & Engineers of Beirut (Lebanon) five new pieces of work by female architects from Spain were added as well as an additional seven by Lebanese female architects. In May 2003 it was displayed in Rome (Italy) in the Acquario Romano (Casa dell´Archittetura) with 5 new piece of work by Italian women. 

Finally the exhibition traveled to Barcelona, and due to the dimensions of the Exhibition Hall, a reduction of pieces was made making the selction process of 22 pieces difficult. As we had attempted to reflect the social and authentic function of Architecture, which is to build spaces on a human scale, spaces where one can live their day to day life, spaces that show they had been “built from the inside”.

WOMEN WHO BUILD" IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

We thought it was vital to establish networks between similar viewpoints, to identify out commonalities as opposed to our divisons. This was the primary reason why we thought a stop in the Barcelona harbour would help to launch a platform for a cultural network between women architects linked by the creation and management of spaces. Thus, in such a way that the echo of a new voice would start to be heard throughout the Mediterranean coasts.

Exhibition Organizers: Cristina García-Rosales & Ana Estirado Gorría, WOMEN WHO BUILD Architects
Sponsorship: Spanish Ministry of Labour of Spain, Directorate General for Housing, Architecture and Town Planning and the Cervantes Institute.
Place: Francesca Bonnemaison Centre for Women (Sant Pere Mes Baix 7, Barcelona), from March 7th to April 29th 
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday (9am to 10 pm) Saturdays (from 10am to 2 pm)

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