Architecture: Insights into a male-dominated industry | DW Documentary

Architecture has long been considered a male domain. But that is changing, as female architects like Zaha Hadid and Eileen Gray receive international recognition for their groundbreaking designs. What unique hurdles and challenges do female architects have to overcome on their way to the top? How do they get highly coveted commissions in a fiercely competitive industry? And to what extent do their designs and buildings reflect an alternative vision? The female architects portrayed in this film shed light on topics from leadership and authority to the “cult of genius”, creativity, pressure, competition, gender roles and social responsibility. They talk about their own relationships to power and reflect on an industry in flux. Regine Leibinger is building Berlin’s tallest building, which should be finished by 2024. Helga Blocksdorf is the force behind a structure in Weimar clad in birch bark. Anapuma Kundoo has devoted herself entirely to the revival of traditional Indian craftsmanship, as seen in her “Wall-House”, which she built to scale for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Architecture is the only art form designed to be lived in. Though underrepresented, women architects shape this world. These are some of their stories.