Meet the Team!

Ebun Andu

Ebun previously studied at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design. She has worked as a photographer for 5 years. She has joined the Manchester School of Architecture and is in the PRAXXIS. Ebun is very passionate about working and connecting black female architects and creatives. Ebun is also a member of the Black Female Architects (BFA)

Meet the Team!

Joe Curtis

Joe previously studied at the Manchester School of Architecture and has continued to work within the feminist atelier, PRAXXIS. Joe’s research interest is primarily on the missing bodies within architecture and the built environment. He has worked on a variety of projects, from concept to construction.

Meet the Team!

Aleksandra Drinkwater

Aleksandra is a BA (Hons) graduate from Liverpool University with experience in small scale residential projects as well as masterplanning. She is interested in making women role in architecture recognised, appreciated and valued across the building industry.

Meet the Team!

Rianna Grant

Rianna previously studied at the University of Sheffield and after two years working in practice in London, she has joined the Manchester School of Architecture in the atelier PRAXXIS. Rianna is passionate about creating inclusivity in architecture, designing for real people’s needs and exploring how architecture can promote health and wellbeing.

Meet the Team!

Tala-Carol Khouri

Tala previously studied at the University of Reading, upon completing her bachelors, she has worked in practice in Amman, Jordan. She has joined the Manchester School of Architecture and is in the &rchitecture atelier. Tala’s interest in feminism and equality stems from the scarceness of female architects at senior levels in comparison to males, particularly in the Middle East.

Meet the Team!

April Sidlow

April graduated from the MSA undergraduate course in 2018 and stayed in Manchester working in practice for 2 years as a Project Manager. April is passionate about inclusive, practical design that is community driven, and also has a keen interest in heritage and conservation.

Meet the Collaborators!

Helen Aston

Helen Aston is a Senior Lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture and has been teaching in architecture schools for over 24 years, always focused and passionate about the spatial implications of feminist theory into practice she has been teaching and practicing in a feminist and inclusive way since 1996. She is currently the MSA Education Lead and leads the feminist design atelier Praxxis. In 2018 she was nominated for the first Ethel Day Awards for her contribution to architectural education and will soon be included in the new Bloomsbury Global Encyclopaedia on Women in Architecture. Helen absolutely loves creating and interpreting diagrams, hates symmetry but passionately loves building things with people who do not normally build. She teaches, she collaborates, she participates, she designs, she builds, she talks (a lot), and she propose things… Helen is a mum to her gorgeous son Harry and has proactively brought him up as a feminist.


Instagram: @praxxis_f

Meet the Collaborators!

Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr

Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr is a chartered landscape architect, art historian and Reader at the Manchester School of Architecture. Her research and writing centre on the histories of landscape architecture, architecture and urban design from the late 19th century to the 1970s, with a particular emphasis on the development of design theories of public spaces and international knowledge transfer. She has led design studios for both under- and postgraduate architecture and landscape architecture students, lectured in various history and theory units, and guided postgraduate research projects. Luca has experience in running international multi-disciplinary workshops, and acted as Humanities coordinator for the undergraduate architecture course at MSA between 2015 and 2020. Luca co-directs the Architecture Research Hub at MSA (with Richard Brook), and is Joint Programme Leader of the Master of Landscape Architecture course (with Becky Sobell).

Meet our Guests!

Joy Burgess

Joy is currently carrying out her PhD at the MSA in collaboration with Historic England. She is researching the work of female landscape architects in post-war Britain and looking to make a contribution towards a feminist history of landscape architecture. Over the years, Joy has worked in a variety of contexts, including as a writer and researcher, supporting Mr. Noel Farrer (FLI PPLI) in his work as an advocate for landscape, particularly during his time as President of the Landscape Institute. In 2012, Joy completed a Master of Architecture in Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, where she focused her research enquiry into theories of utopia. Joy has worked as a garden designer, for high end residential projects for the past seven years. Alongside this, she worked as an academic developer for an undergraduate BA Hons degree in Garden Design for The Open College of the Arts (OCA), a division of The University for the Creative Arts, finishing this role in 2020.

The 'How Women Build' blog is nearing completion and will be LIVE tomorrow!

The How Women Build blog is a repository of research and data undertaken by both Helen Aston, Dr. Luca Csepley Knorr, and the How Women Build MSA Live team, with a primary focus on outlining the MSA's contribution to educating female designers within architecture and landscapes.

Not only will the blog provide information on the upcoming conference, but it will also celebrate the lives and works of women practitioners who build and have built, who may never have been recognised.

Here are some images of our feminist timeline coming together by Group 02.

The timeline records gender, architectural and landscape history, worldwide historical events, as well as the many previous adaptations of the Manchester School of Architecture, to learn and highlight the trends and common themes of female admissions in the last 100 years.

It has been interesting to discover how the later waves of feminism and the merging of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University to create the school of architecture caused spikes in female admissions.

Here is a selection of some of the work from Group 03.

Using case study research from the previous week, Group 03 has been creating a series of feminist posters which celebrate the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture. The posters not only name these women, but they explain what they have built, what they went on to do, and what they do now.

We can't wait to show the final outputs in the coming days!

Yesterday we met with Helen Aston for our final review, we were also joined by Joy Burgess, a PhD student at MMU. We presented the final how WOMEN build? blog as well as a feminist timeline, infographics about female admissions at the Manchester School of Architecture, a feminist poster naming all female graduates from the school in the last 100 years and a series of feminist case study posters.

Helen was extremely happy with all the outputs and efforts made by the BA1 and 2 students. Well done Group 10!

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Dr Harriet Harris

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Sonia Pabla-Thomas

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Selasi Setufe

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Natasha Jones

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Mary Frances Mitchell

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Caroline Benedict Smith

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Dawn Hindle

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Helen Forman

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Jenny Lovell

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Nicola Brown

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Fay Freeman

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Heather Heaton

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Valarie Garnier

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Vanessa Ross

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Hilary Newhall

As part of the event, we explored the lives of female graduates from the Manchester School of Architecture in the past 100 years. In total, we undertook 16 case studies, which the BA students translated into a series of posters. It was interesting to see the range of professions that these women went on to do, from landscape designers to product designers, academics to managers of nightclubs.

Case Study: Francesca Atalla

Today we handed over the 'how WOMEN build?' blog to the collaborators ready for them to use for their live conference. The blog has entirely been created using work created by the BA 1+2 students.

Image: how WOMEN build? blog homepage