GSAPPXX presents: Beatriz Colomina

Couplings: The Secret Life of Modern Architecture
Beatriz Colomina

Women are the ghosts of modern architecture, everywhere present, crucial, but strangely invisible. Unacknowledged, they are destined to haunt the field forever. But correcting the record is not just a question of adding a few names or even thousands to the history of architecture. It is not just a matter of human justice or historical accuracy, but a way to more fully understand architecture and the complex ways it is produced. Architecture is deeply collaborative, more like moviemaking than visual art, for example. But unlike movies, this is hardly ever acknowledged. Until recently, it has been a secret carefully guarded.

Beatriz Colomina is an architectural historian and theorist renowned for her work in the relationship between architecture, media and gender. Her books include Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media, Domesticity at War and Sexuality & Space. She recently co-curated the Istanbul Design Biennial with Mark Wigley, provocatively asking “Are We Human?” She is a professor of history and theory of architecture and is the director of the Ph.D program at the Princeton University School of Architecture.

GSAPPXX is the GSAPP chapter of ArchiteXX, a national organization for women in design. At GSAPP, we use the platform to elevate the work of influential and innovative women, and to prompt discussion on the work they produce and the process they use.

Organized by GSAPPXX.