Women Writing

Through a forest of postcards next to an oversized bookshelf and historical prints, books, and objects, this exhibition presents the results of a five-year research project funded by the European Research Council at ETH Zurich. Women Writing Architecture 1700-1900 (WoWA for short) examines how female authors contributed to architecture through their writings in the 18th and 19th centuries. The project is based on the hypothesis that writing is a spatial practice and thus represents one of the processes that constitute architecture both as discourse and as a built manifestation that is created, experienced, used, and criticized. We have built our own archive and present a large-scale installation, a bookshelf with annotated texts from the Women Writing Architecture 1700-1900 workshops, including post-its and markings that document the (un)learning necessary to expand historiography. Printed matter, books, and magazines written by women, as well as historical illustrations and objects, show that women have always been active participants in the built environment. We invite visitors to take a postcard home with them and reflect: What did she have to say? Who else have we overlooked?

Opening: March 3, 2026, 6 p.m.