Dizengoff Square Tel Aviv, Rekonstruktion, © Photo: OVEDC Wiki Loves Monuments, 2018
Programme-focus
»Modern Emancipation 2025«
at BHROX bauhaus reuse
Women Build Cities
The City Through a Female Lens
In 2030, 2.5 billion women will live and work in cities. And in most cases, these cities will have been planned and built by men. This raises the urgent question: how much femininity will the city of tomorrow offer? To what extent will the city of the future be tailored to all of our wishes and needs? And what role will female architects, urban planners and city builders play in this?
In fact, over the last 150 years, women have made many significant contributions that have shaped, designed and significantly influenced today’s cities. Their contributions range from small ideas that have an impact on our everyday urban life, to bridges, squares and parks, to plans for urban expansion areas and entire cities – from the new rooftop park on Darwinstraße in Berlin to the Brooklyn Bridge in the Big Apple to the Australian capital Canberra.
Frauen Bauen Stadt. The City Through a Female Lens Ausstellung 2025, © Photo: zkg, 2025
The exhibition »Women Build Cities« is taking place at BHROX bauhaus reuse as part of this year’s programme focus on »Modern Emancipation«. The thematic focus began in June with contributions to the »WIA 2025 – Women in Architecture Festival,« such as the mini-symposium »Women in Architecture after 1945 in Czechoslovakia and Germany« as part of the German-Czech discussion series “archint” and the workshop »The City and its Female Planners.« In September, the programme focus will continue with the exhibition ‘Frauen Bauen Stadt’ (Women Build the City). The exhibition »Women Architects in the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction of Skopje« will conclude the programme in November 2025 as part of the »TDM2025 – Triennale der Moderne« (TDM2025 – Triennial of Modernism).
The exhibition, conceived by Wojciech Czaja and Katja Schechtner, has previously been shown in Vienna (2021) and Bregenz (2022) and presents examples of the work of a dozen female architects, urban planners, city builders, landscape architects and artists from around the world – their completed projects, their urban legacy and their commitment to the city of tomorrow – alongside comparable projects and positions from the Berlin area.
In some cases, the work of these women designers is widely known, even world-famous. In some cases, the names of these women are simply ignored by the public alongside their male colleagues. And in some cases, these women have been forgotten and their works have disappeared into the archives, lost to the ravages of time. Sometimes it is almost impossible to find photos or original quotes.
The exhibition theme, »The City Through a Female Lens,« is a compilation of diversity, urbanity, and contrasts. This mini world tour takes us to Grandes Dames and their major projects – and extends to those women planners who have left their creative and infrastructural mark on Berlin and Brandenburg.
Frauen Bauen Stadt. The City Through a Female Lens Ausstellung 2025, © Photo: zkg, 2025
Wojciech Czaja works as a journalist, curator, author and presenter – for Bauwelt, Baunetz, db deutsche bauzeitung and the Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard, among others. His main areas of interest are architecture and urban culture. He is a lecturer at the University of Art and Design Linz and the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His book publications include Das Buch vom Land, mittendrin und rundherum (The Book of the Country, Right in the Middle and All Around), Hektopolis. Ein Reiseführer in hundert Städte (Hektopolis: A Travel Guide to a Hundred Cities) and Almost. 100 Städte in Wien (Almost: 100 Cities in Vienna).
Katja Schechtner is an urban researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, among other places. She develops strategies and technologies that keep our cities moving – for example, for the OECD in Paris and the Asian Development Bank in Manila. She advises governments, institutions and start-ups, is a supervisory board member at international companies, teaches at European universities and curates exhibitions on cities and technology. Most recently, she presented her work on cities and nature at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2025.
A book has been published to accompany the exhibition:
Frauen Bauen Stadt. The City Through a Female Lens
Wojciech Czaja, Katja Schechtner (eds.)
With contributions by Jane Hall, Kristin Feireiss, Mary Pepchinski, Sabina Riß, Angelika Fitz, Baerbel Mueller, Maik Novotny and many more.
208 pages, 132 illustrations
Print: ISBN 978-3-0356-2432-8
E-book: ISBN 978-3-0356-2434-2
EUR 46.00
modern emancipation, Logo, © Grafik: zukunftsgeraeusche, 2022
