Meet 10 Black female architects and engineers to celebrate and be inspired by

01/10 -

Angela Mingas. Mingas has an extensive academic background, which includes architecture, pedagogy and anthropology, at the Technical University of Lisbon. Born in Portugal, the architect specializes in Architectural Heritage and Urban Semiotics and was previously Secretary of State and Territorial Planning of Angola (2017-2018). She also founded the Center for Studies and Scientific Research in Arts, Architecture, Urbanism and Design at the Lusíada University of Angola (CEICA-AAUD) and is currently a professor at the Lusíada University of Angola.

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02/10 -

Amaza Lee Meredith (1895-1984). Meredith was born in Virginia, United States, and despite racial segregation, she graduated with honors in Fine Arts in 1930 from Columbia University and earned her master's degree from the same institution in 1934. She chaired the Department of Art at the University of Virginia for more than two decades and, although she never received any specific training, she did some architectural work. The best known of these was her own residence, the Azurest South, 1938, an example of the International Style. Pictured is Amaza Lee and the Azurest South house.

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03/10 -

Allison Williams. Founder of AGWms_studio, Williams stands out for the interdisciplinary nature of her work, which connects architecture, technology, culture, sustainability and, above all, dialogue with the particularities of each project. With a career spanning more than three decades, she has participated in lectures and events, as well as being mentioned in the list of "Most Influential Women of 2014" by San Francisco Business Times. She is currently also a visiting professor at Stanford University. Some of her projects include Princess Nora Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia, the Scientific Measurement Laboratory at NASA Langley Research Center and the Afro-American Culture Center in Pittsburgh. In the photo, Allison and Princess Nora Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia.

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04/10 -

Yewande Omotoso. Yewande Omotoso is a Nigerian architect and writer. She graduated in architecture from the University of Cape Town but continued her studies in creative writing. Her novel Bom Boy was awarded the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the South African Literary Award for a Debut Work. She now lives in South Africa and works in both professions.

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05/10 -

Annette Fisher. British-born Annette Fisher was raised in Nigeria and graduated from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. With over three decades of experience as an architect, Fisher has a long list of projects in several countries, signed by her firm, Fisher Associates (FA-Global), based in Chelsea. She was the first black woman elected as a member of the RIBA (Royal Institute of Architects) Council, in 1999, and served as vice-president from 2001 to 2004. Pictured is Annette Fisher and a project by her firm, FA-Global.

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06/10 -

Georgia Louise Brown Harris (1918-1999). Harris was the second black woman to receive a license to practice architecture in the United States. She was born in Kansas and studied at several prestigious institutions, such as Washburn University and the University of Kansas, as well as taking classes with her colleague Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In the 1950s, she decided to move to Brazil in the hope of finding a country where her possibilities would not be limited by ethnicity or gender. Although racial democracy was nothing more than a myth, the architect managed to carry out major projects, overcoming racism and her condition as a foreigner during a period of extreme nationalism during the Vargas Era. Among her many works, industrial architecture stands out, such as: Ford Motors do Brasil, Kodak do Brasil and Siemens do Brasil. In the photo, Georgia and Kodak Brasil.

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07/10 -

Linda Mvusi. In addition to being an architect, Mvusi is also a South African actress. She graduated in the 1980s from the Ghana University of Science and Technology and, after acting in the film “A World Apart” (1988), by Chris Menges, was responsible for coordinating the project of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg in 2001. For the film, Mvusi was the first South African woman to receive the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and as an architect, she was awarded by the South African Institute of Architects. She currently has her own office, Mvusi & Mvusi Architecture & Design. In the photo, Linda and the Apartheid Museum.

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08/10 -

Enedina Marques (1913-1981). Enedina Alves de Marques' career is marked by overcoming paradigms. She was the first female engineer in Paraná and the first black female engineer in Brazil. Coming from a humble family, she managed to enter the Federal University of Paraná in 1940 and graduated in 1945. As a civil engineer, she worked in public departments such as the State Department of Transportation and Public Works, the State Department of Education and Culture, and the State Department of Water and Electric Energy. Her greatest work was the Capivari-Cachoeira Plant, part of a project to harness the waters of the Capivari, Cachoeira, and Iguaçu rivers. Legend has it that Marques, at work, wore overalls with a belt, where she carried a gun to intimidate men who did not respect her. In the photo, Enedina and the Capivari-Cachoeira Plant today.

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09/10 -

Martha Cassell (1925-1968). Born in Baltimore, USA, Cassel was the daughter of an architect and a public school teacher. She and her sister, Alberta Jeannette Cassell, were the first two black women architects to graduate from Cornell University in the late 1940s. Her knowledge of the Gothic style led her to be the chief architect for the restoration of the then Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, which would become the Washington National Cathedral. Pictured is Martha and the Cathedral.

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Beverly Loraine Greene (1915-1957). Born in Chicago, Illinois, in the USA, Greene was the first black woman to earn a degree in architecture and engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) in 1936. She is also believed to have been the first black woman in the United States to receive a license to practice architecture, challenging racial and sexist paradigms and prejudices. Greene was a modernist and designed Stuyvesant Town and the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, together with architect Marcel Breuer. In the photo, Beverly and the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

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The recent tragic events involving the deaths of young black people, both in the United States and in Brazil, and the protests that followed, have raised questions about representation and racism in all spheres of society. Architecture is not excluded from the debate: among the great architects awarded and praised by history books, the majority are men and white.

Considering the spirit of “accountability” (or “taking responsibility”) of the Black Lives Matter movement, but above all giving due recognition to these pioneering women, check out a list celebrating black architects who made and are making history. Read more about the topic at: Representation matters: meet 31 black female architects, via ArchDaily: https://bit.ly/331jVFx Pioneering Women of American Architecture: https://bit.ly/3bh0fkw Invisible Architects: https://bit.ly/3lHgFrl

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