Today, activism groups Voices of Women Architects and Rebel Architette launched a petition asking the Rome-based Istituto Nazionale di Architettura (IN/ARCH) to recognize Doriana Fuksas along with her husband and partner Massimiliano Fuksas in the lifetime achievement award he received in late November.

“We were stunned that they did not recognize both Massimiliano and his equal partner Doriana Fuksas and feel that this needs to be corrected immediately,” architect Caroline James, who launched the campaign with Louise Braverman, Francesca Perani, and Arielle Assouline-Lichten, told RECORD by email.

Photo © Marta Brembila

Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas have worked in partnership since 1985, with headquarters in Rome, Paris, and Shenzhen, China. Major projects include Terminal 3 at the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport and the New Rome-EUR Convention Center and Hotel.

By 1 p.m., on Wednesday, December 12—the initiative’s first day—nearly 190 architects, designers, and related professionals had added their names to the letter, including Massimiliano Fuksas, Paola Antonelli, Gisue Hariri, Toshiko Mori, Beatriz Colomina, Rem Koolhaas, and Denise Scott Brown. (In 2013, two of this effort’s leaders, James and Assouline-Lichten, petitioned the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury to retroactively recognize Scott Brown as part of the 1991 award, which went to her husband, Robert Venturi. Though unsuccessful in changing the Prize, the petition was signed by more than 20,000 people. )

Voices of Women Architects organized a flash mob demonstration in the Giardini at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, calling for equal rights and respect for all members of the professional community, and Rebel Architette recently launched the #timefor50 (time for equality) campaign, aiming to raise awareness about inclusion.

The two groups hope to accumulate more signatures, before presenting IN/ARCH with their letter.


Stay tuned for further updates and view the petition online.