MoMoWo - 100 Works in 100 Years. European Women in architecture and Design, 1918-2018

This book is one of the main products of research carried out by the international project “MoMoWo - Women’s creativity since the Modern Movement” lead by the Polytechnic of Turin and co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The aim of this publication is increasing the awareness about the works of women who worked in Europe as well as European women who worked outside Europe over the last 100 years (1918-2018). Forty-five authors from Universities and Research centres all around Europe contributed to writing texts, and more than 300 women among architects, civil engineers, landscape designers, urban planners, furniture and interior designers are listed in the “Index of names”. The book consists of four main sections: the first “100 Works, 100 Years, 100 Women” is a catalogue of the MoMoWo international travelling exhibition, the second presents the “Chrono MoMoWo” timeline on women achievements, the third “Thematic Essays” is devoted to historical and critical articles, and the last publishes the results of the MoMoWo international photo competition “Reportage on Women’s Designer Own Home”. In the first section “100 Works, 100 Years, 100 Women” is a collection of entries covering 28 countries in Europe and beyond. Each entry is devoted to a work was conceived to able to reveal traces of the historical period, culture and society that designed, produced and used it. Each entry text was formulated to be directly or indirectly able to underline a system of historical, cultural and social relationships, mentioning also building and production practices and technologies. Taking into account that each work also epitomises an achievement in the author’s life each work description was flanked by a biography of the designer. Biographical texts were formulated in order to highlight the career - including the barriers encountered - and prizes or awards received. Taking into account the meaning of MoMoWo’s collection will derive from its ability to provoke a conscious process of attributing meaning by its readers. To support this dialectical process and to avoid the risk of treating “history as a series of ‘sequentia fixa’ or even closed ‘totalities’”, 13 Thematic Essays were conceived in order to provide the reader with arguments that cross and break the linear sequence, sometimes bypassing the geographical confines of Europe and offering examples and comparisons worldwide. This book wishes to build up a repertory of tangible and intangible cultural ‘signs’ capable of fostering comparisons and connections between memory and future, encouraging new mappings of women’s creativity in Europe.