Building genealogies, learning from feminism. Women as designers and planners

The Twentieth Century has been full of changes, especially for women. The urban space conquest has led not only to greater freedom of movement, but also set up a lot of opportunities for designers and planner. In the past, we have been muses, then illuminated clients, then users (Griswold Tyng 1989; Gallucci, Mattogno 2000). Today we are aware of our role in planning and designing. We are conscious that our field of study and practice has expanded from the private space to the public realm (Mattogno 2013). Anyway, we are also aware that in the history of women much remains to be written, although we have started the construction and organization of memory, studying the so-called "pioneer", who in Italy, much later we called the "mothers". Knowing, naming, and remembering the first women who have studied and practiced architecture and town planning is an important step toward re-establishing a gender identity. It is also crucial to fill a gap of knowledge, through renewing the awareness of a professional role: a role that has not been without of difficulty (Mattogno 2014). The paper outlines some of the milestones of the women architect research during the Twentith century, with a special focus on building a new genealogy. There are several ways of building a genealogy for women designers. The multiple directions of my attempt consists in: _ Systematizing the various women storytelling to order a large variety of approaches and methodologies, based on catalogues and archives, anthologies and monographs, critical essays and articles; _ Bringing out figures of unknown or forgotten designers; _ Exploring new research directions comparing different forms of collective team. Although women designers still have to fight with lower wages and rooted prejudices (as every year highlights the survey of the English magazine AJ), my paper want to clarify that the presence of women in architecture is now considerable and that their different approach is creating new work practices. A few references: _ Brown L.A., 2011, ed., Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture, Ashgate. _ Gallucci L. e Mattogno C. (2000), LE AUTRICI DELLA CITTÀ in: Duemilauna. Donne che cambiano l’Italia, a cura di A. Buttarelli, L. Muraro, L. Rampella, Nuove Pratiche Editrice – Il Saggiatore. _ Griswold Tyng A. (1989), “From Muse to Heroine. Toward a visible creative identitity”, in: Ellen Perry Berkeley and Matilda McQuaid eds, Architecture a Place for Women, Smithsonian Institute Press. _ Mattogno C. (2013), “Muse, committenti, progettiste. Il lungo percorso delle donne in architettura”, in TRIA, TERRITORIO DELLA RICERCA SU INSEDIAMENTI E AMBIENTE. Rivista internazionale di cultura urbanistica n. 10. _ Mattogno C. (2014) “Lo spazio urbano tra ricerca e progetto. Note per una lettura di genere” in TERRITORIO n. 69. _ Mattogno C. (2015)“Declinare femminismo e architettura” In L’ARCHITETTURA NECESSARIA DI LAURA GALLUCCI, di Irene de Guttry e Cristina Liquori, Quodlibet. _ Petrescu D., 2007, ed., Altering practices: Feminist politics and poetics of space. Routledge.