Architecture

Women Architects Award: the 2024 winners

Since 1994, ARVHA (a French non-profit association for research into cities and housing) has been working to promote professional equality and non-discrimination in the fields of construction, architecture and urban planning. On 28 November 2024, ARVHA celebrated the 12th edition of its “Prix des femmes architectes“, or “Women Architects Award”, which recognises the work of French and international women architects.

©PFRunner

On 28 October, the jury for the ARHVA Women Architects 2024 Award reviewed a total of 1,120 projects contained in 320 applications. At the end of their deliberations, the fourteen members of the jury agreed to reward four outstanding architects with the following prizes:

  • the ‘Woman Architect’ Prize, awarded to one candidate for 3 to 5 completed projects
  • the ‘Original Work’ Prize
  • the ‘Young Woman Architect’ Prize, awarded to a candidate under 40 years of age for 3 to 5 completed or unfinished projects
  • the ‘International’ Prize, awarded to a foreign candidate for 3 or 5 of her works
©Juan Jerez

“Woman Architect” Prize
Maud Caubet is the recipient of the 2024 ‘Woman Architect’ prize.
A graduate of the Paris-La Villette school of architecture, the architect set up her own practice, Maud Caubet Architectes, in 2006. In 2022, she was appointed a member of the French Académie d’architecture. A year later, the French Ministry of Culture made her a Chevalière dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (an order recognising significant contributions to the arts or literature).
The jury gave her this award after examining the following five projects:

  • Tour Racine, Paris (FR), 2024. Transformation of the former ONF (French National Forestry Commission) headquarters and design of offices, third-party spaces, shops, an agricultural greenhouse and vegetable garden (6,081 sqm).
  • Les Sheds, Pantin (FR), 2022. Renovation of the former Cartier-Bresson spinning mills and design of a cultural centre and a children’s play area (370 sqm)
  • Origine, Nanterre (FR), 2021. Design of an office building with a mixed wood/concrete structure, housing, nursery and shops (70,000 sqm)
  • Nouvelle vague, Nanterre (FR), 2020. Design of a 145-apartment building (including 78 flats for first-time buyers and 67 social housing units) with a nursery and shops (11,000 sqm)
  • Tour initiale, Nanterre (FR), 2020. Interior renovation of an office tower (phase 2 – 30,000 sqm)
©Jan de Groen

“Original Work” Prize
The ‘Original Work’ prize was awarded to Spanish architect and urban planner Beatriz Ramo Lopez de Angulo.
After a time working for OMA between 2003 and 2004, she founded STAR strategies + architecture in Rotterdam. She is the managing editor of Magazine on Urbanism (MONU).
The winning project is START, a five-building complex of 288 ‘evolutive’ homes in Ivry (FR), completed in 2024.

© DR

“Young Woman Architect” Prize
The jury awarded the Young Woman Architect prize to Margaux Puech-Pelipenko.
Winner of the 40under40 prize in 2021-2022, the DE-HMONP architect, a graduate of the Bordeaux School of Architecture and Landscape, co-founded b2p architecture in 2014.
The architect had applied for the 2024 edition with the following five projects:

  • Le Chai, Bordeaux (FR), 2023. Transformation of a former wine storehouse into a loft (260 sqm)
  • Gustave, Bordeaux (FR), 2023 (tranche 1). Construction of an external glazed lift in the Bordeaux conservation and enhancement plan area and interior renovation of a building (870 sqm)
  • Matsuba Cha, Lège-Cap-Ferret (FR), 2022. Construction of a detached house with a CLT structure and reused wood on the facade, swimming pool and landscaping (159 sqm)
  • Pomme de pin, Cap-Ferret (FR), 2019. Renovation and extension of a 1960s house (171 sqm)
  • Le Pavinon, Bègles (FR), 2019. Construction of a new detached house (95 sqm)
© DR

“International” Prize
The International prize was awarded to architect Sara de Giles Dubois.
Since 2004, she has headed the Spanish practice Morales de Giles Arquitectos. A winner and finalist in numerous architectural awards, Sara de Giles Dubois also holds a doctorate in architecture. She teaches at the Higher Technical School of Architecture in Seville and has been a guest lecturer at several European and international schools.
The following five projects were selected by the jury:

This year’s Prix des femmes architectes was organised with the support of the Conseil national de l’Ordre des architectes and the City of Paris. The fourteen members of this year’s jury were:

About ARHVA
Founded in 1993, ARVHA (Association pour la recherche sur la ville et l'habitat) is an association governed by the French law of 1901. Its aim is to carry out research, studies and training in the field of housing and the living environment. Since 1995, it has been organising training courses for architects in various fields - disability, sustainable development and architecture, urban renewal of neighbourhoods. For more than ten years, ARVHA has been taking action and conducting research in three areas: accessibility for all, sustainable development and professional equality in the architectural sector. As a logical consequence of this work on gender equality, ARVHA has been organising the ‘Prix femmes architectes’ since 2013 and is opening it up internationally for its fifth edition in 2017. To this end, ARVHA has set up a European network with Donne Architetto in Italy, Andrea Klimko Architecture in Slovakia, AJ Journal in the UK, and its network of 35,000 architects in Austria, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. The aim of the prize is to highlight the work and careers of women architects, so that young women architects can draw inspiration from existing female role models, and to encourage parity in a profession that is still heavily male-dominated.

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