Room at the Top? Who Writes the History of Archi­tecture?

Denise Scott Brown's controversial essay 'Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture' was published in 1989. The role of women is not only entirely undervalued in the architecture sector, the same is true in the fields of research and training despite the fact that most of the architectural research at universities has long been done by women.

Renate Wagner-Rieger (1921– 1980) was the first woman to hold a chair as a professor at the Department of Art History in Vienna, in 1971. Her groundbreaking research project on the Vienna Ring Road initiated a reevaluation of the era of Historicism. By asking uncomfortable questions, women’s research set trends that contributed significantly to redefining the discipline. Anna Teut and Barbara Miller Lane published groundbreaking essays on Nazi Germany in the 1960s, well before the phase of coming to terms with the Nazi past in architecture — and in general — began. A high-calibre panel discussion looks back and towards the future.

Film screening
„Renate Wagner-Rieger“ (Dir: Martina Pippal, AT 2022, 35:34 min, OV)

Guest speakers:
Birgit Knauer, Denkmalpflege & Bauen im Bestand, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)
Irene Nierhaus, Institute for Art History, Film Studies, Art Education, Bremen University
Martina Pippal, Institute of Art History, Uni Wien
Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber, Institute of Art History, TU Wien
Julia Rüdiger, Institute of History and Theory of Architecture, Catholic Private University Linz (KU Linz)

Moderated by:
Monika Platzer, Head of Collections, Curator, Az W