By Alicita Rodríguez
Are female architects changing the paradigm of what constitutes a skyscraper? I’m afraid we don’t really have an answer yet.
That’s because so few skyscrapers have been designed by women. If we use the standards set by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), only 41 tall buildings (50+ meters) by female architects exist.
This is partially due to the discrepancy between the number of male and female architects. In her book “Where Are the Women Architects?,” architectural historian Despina Stratigakos points out the “glacial pace” of women in the field: “In 2000, women represented 13 percent of registered architects … we will have to wait until 2093 before we reach a 50–50 gender split.”
There is another problem affecting how we report skyscrapers designed by women: Some female architects simply fail to get credit for their work. This often happens when women collaborate with men.
With less opportunity for women historically, fewer female architects exist. Additionally, that number of female architects has received less recognition. Given that modern skyscrapers are relatively new (invented in 1885, according to CTBUH), architects have had less time to design them—and women architects have had exponentially less time.
Two female architects dominate the list of skyscrapers designed by women: Zaha Hadid and Jeanne Gang. With 11 and 7 completed tall buildings (and more under construction), Hadid and Gang are undisputed masters of the form. But have they changed the aesthetics of skyscrapers?
Tall structures featuring rigid verticality may be interpreted as phallic. In a 2007 article by Juan A. Roche Cárcel, he describes how the skyscraper connotes masculinity and power. “The skyscraper personifies a masculine economic face because […] skyscraper architects are, to this day, men and because they are dominated by the figures of the straight line, the rectangle, the phallic tower and the obelisk,” he writes. If you build vertically, you pierce the sky—an act that seems forceful. But is it possible to build a tall building without creating a sense of penetration?
Maybe.
Tall buildings by Zaha Hadid and Jeanne Gang do disrupt the phallic focus. These two architects have found ways to disrupt the erective nature of skyscrapers through rounded forms, curved vertexes and interior voids. Hadid’s Galaxy SOHO building in Beijing is composed of four flowing volumes that connect to each other through sweeping walls. The entire project eschews right angles, choosing instead ovoid forms with rounded vertexes. With the St. Regis Chicago (Vista Tower), Gang breaks down the tower typology in a similar way by using three volumes to replace one tower. The three units also feature undulating exterior walls, which again displace the rigidity of traditional skyscrapers.
Exoskeletons, fluid forms and holes also undercut the tower typology in Hadid’s and Gang’s tall buildings. A rippling X-shaped exoskeleton defines Hadid’s 1000 Museum in Miami and simultaneously creates curved cutouts at the building’s corners, allowing for the creation of multi-directional balconies with expansive views. Something similar occurs in Gang’s Aqua Tower in Chicago. Inspired by terrestrial topography, every fl oor slab is strategically sculpted, which provides balconies with sightlines to surrounding neighbors, thereby enhancing a sense of community. The white slabs against the straight glass sections of the building give Aqua Tower its dynamic rippling quality.
Zaha Hadid and Jeanne Gang each have their own architectural aesthetic, but they share an undeniable ability to dismantle the paradigm of the skyscraper tower. Instead, their buildings illustrate how women architects can diffuse verticality while climbing to great heights—designing tall buildings that fluctuate and shimmer against the sky.
