Episode 96: Solange d'Herbez de la Tour
The time was September 8, 1924, the place Bucharest, Romania. Solange Pauline Eugénie d'Herbez de la Tour was born. She received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Bucharest in 1947 and then, a degree in urban planning from the Polytechnic School of Bucharest two years later. Shortly after graduating, she moved to France, starting her own firm in Paris in 1950. She entered the 1954 competition, Logements économiques de première nécessité; they sought proposals for affordable housing in response to the post-war housing crisis that was occurring in France. 97 teams were competing, including big name architects in France. Still, Solange’s team provided two of the thirteen winning projects. Even though she had not one but TWO winning designs, the French Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism REFUSED to give her a prize, using as an excuse that she did not meet the legal requirements to enter the competition because she didn’t complete military service. Back then to get a public contract you had to have served in the military. Solange protested this decision by starting a hunger strike. Soon others joined her cause, and the Ministry decided to give her the award. This experience inspired her to begin the French Union of Women Architects in 1960. Just three years after forming the French Union of Women Architects, she organized the 1st International Congress of Women Architects. The attendants agreed to form the International Union of Female Architects, aka UIFA, for its abbreviation in French. Their agenda included discussing ideas and solutions regarding the struggle for equal rights of women in the profession and creating a permanent international body to connect and enact change. This group exists to this day.
Throughout her career, she designed more than 5,000 apartment units, public and cultural buildings, sports arenas, elementary schools, nurseries, hospitals, and urban planning for new towns. And she has been awarded the title Chevalier by the National Order of Merit and an Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of Architects.
Caryatid: Sara Topelson
Sara Topelson is a Polish-Mexican architect. She was born in Poland but her parents fled during the Nazi regime and landed in Mexico when Sara was three months old. Sara has degrees in architecture, architectural theory, and art history from top colleges in Mexico including UNAM. Together with her husband who is also an architect she runs the firm Grinberg & Topelson Architects. They’ve designed a large variety of projects from residential, to commercial, to educational, to cultural… the list goes on and on. She is a professor of history of art, architecture, and urban planning.
Sara is a member of the UIA, she became a council member the year the three of us were born, she was vice-president from 1993 to 1996 and that year she became the first woman to be president of the UIA a position she held until 1999.
References
Cguske. “International Union of Women Architects.” AIA Virginia, 10 Sept. 2015, www.aiava.org/international-union-of-women-architects-congress.
Dedecca, Paula. “UIFA, UIA, IAB: Transnational Dialogues About Women Architects (1960-1967).” Cadernos Pagu, no. 67, May 2023, https://doi.org/10.1590/18094449202300670013.
IAWA Biographical Database. iawadb.lib.vt.edu/view_all.php?person_pk=370.
“INTERNATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN ARCHITECT – U.I.F.A.” Die Architektin, 22 Aug. 2012, architektin.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/international-union-of-women-architect-u-i-f-a.
Wikipedia contributors. “Sara Topelson De Grinberg.” Wikipedia, 25 Sept. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Topelson_de_Grinberg.
---. “Solange D’Herbez De La Tour.” Wikipedia, 21 Sept. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solange_d%27Herbez_de_la_Tour.
Images:
Dedecca, Paula. “UIFA, UIA, IAB: Transnational Dialogues About Women Architects (1960-1967).” Cadernos Pagu, no. 67, May 2023, https://doi.org/10.1590/18094449202300670013.
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