The exhibition titled ‘Buone Nuove – Women Changing Architecture’, which documents the evolution of the role of women in architecture, from the pioneers of the early 20th century to today’s archistars, from multidisciplinary associations to large international firms led by female designers, was opened by the Italian Embassy in Kosovo and the Italian Cultural Institute in Tirana on 5 December at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Pristina and will remain open until 5 January 2024.
“The exhibition – which we are particularly proud to have on display in Pristina as part of a world tour that has already been to Sweden, Qatar, Bosnia, and Albania – intends to offer to a not necessarily expert public a new and more inclusive point of view on architecture. It aims to document and, in some way, compensate for the contribution made by female designers, couples, female teams, and collectives to the achievements and quality of modern and contemporary architecture in Italy, trying to explore points of contact with the local scene as well”, the Italian Ambassador Antonello De Riu and the Director of the Institute Alessandro Ruggera explained.
The exhibition – organised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in collaboration with the MAXXI Foundation in Rome – articulates its narrative in chapters. The first chapter (Histories of Italian Women Architects) is dedicated to the lives and projects of around twenty of the most interesting female representatives of Italian architecture from the post-war period to the present day. The second chapter (Practices in Italy) focuses on a series of works carried out in Italy by international women designers, often in collaboration with local companies and professionals, covering the first two decades of the present century. The last two chapters (Narratives and Visions) include interviews with female experts and scholars on the topic of gender equality in architectural professions, as well as a series of video works dedicated to the more and more conscious relationship between ‘gender and space’.