La Nature offre souvent des spectacles d’une poésie inouïe. Les milieux sous-marins renferment bien des mystères et des êtres aussi beaux que fascinants. Les baleines en font partie. Ces mammifères, qui se présentent devant l’objectif des photographes les plus patients, dévoilent des courbes et des couleurs, qui se marient parfaitement avec le bleu des abysses marins ou les paysages qui les abritent.
Des rencontres entre les mondes terrestre et marin, qui se produisent sur un territoire où l’homme n’est pas maître, mais où la quiétude et le caractère paisible de ces animaux semblent montrer une unité entre ces deux univers. Un regard candide et émerveillé se pose alors sur ces instants capturés en bon lieu et au moment opportun.
Sur sa plateforme Premium, Adobe Stock rassemble de magnifiques clichés de ces cétacés. Ils ne paraissent montrer aucun trouble face aux photographes pourtant placés autour d’eux à la recherche du plus bel instant marin à capturer.
ArtCenter College of Design, a world-renowned school of art and design located in Pasadena, California, seeks an experienced academic leader to serve as their next Provost. Reporting to the President and working in close collaboration with academic leadership, the Provost will have a unique platform to further shape the future of 21st century art and design education with incredibly talented students and faculty, many of whom are notable artists and designers from around the world.
Last week’s WGSN Futures conference, an event founded by the trend research agency, focused on the future of retail, branding and marketing in a time now dubbed the “Retail Apocalypse.” With thousands of brick and mortar stores shutting down last year, it’s clear traditional retail needs a bit of rebranding itself. WGSN’s stance on the matter was immediately made clear through the conference’s theme: The Future Consumer.
Along with the topic of the Future Consumer is the pressing issue of getting into the minds of Millennials. Ah, yes, Millennials—pale pink frenzied, fidget-spinning, social media obsessed Millennials. As easy as it is to poke fun at them, brands old and new are still struggling to define their consumer behaviors. All that’s extremely clear at the moment is that Millennials treat retail and purchasing decisions very differently than generations before them. So how are brands small and large, old and new navigating the waters in order to fit the needs of the upcoming consumer group?
The one-day Futures conference held at MoMA aimed to explore this and more. Speakers ranging from make-up company Glossier’s COO & President to Levi Strauss & Co.’s Head of Design gave forward-thinking, motivational presentations on how to understand your consumers and where your products fit into a defined product category. Trend research may feel like a realm dedicated solely to fashion designers and marketers, but for industrial designers, the insights gleaned from extensive trend research is just as applicable. It’s important to understand that thoroughly understanding your market contextualizes the products you work so hard to design, making them even more desirable to consumers.
To that point, we noticed some crossover advice during the conference that could benefit designers working to redefine or reinvent product categories to stay relevant in today’s ever-evolving, ever-expanding product markets.
“Product is Content”
One highly anticipated discussion during the conference was a sit-down with COO & President Henry Davis of the wildly successful cult makeup brand Glossier, a company that purportedly projected an unbelievable 600% growth over the course of 2016. One of the main points Davis emphasized is a daily question around the Glossier office is, “how can I give customers an experience I cannot get offline?” For Glossier, this proves to be a very important question because almost all of their sales come from online, they have no outside retailers, and only one very small physical showroom located in New York City (which Davis pointed out successfully makes rent the first two hours of each month from store visits). What’s the secret to their success? Ultimately, design.
“Everything we do is content,” noted Davis, which includes not only their packaging design, but their newsletters, social media posts, graphic branding, and more. Thanks to highly desirable, pinpointed visual branding, approximately 79% of their sales came from “organic and peer-to-peer and earned sources,” meaning their fans were pushing the message for them.
It comes naturally to designers to create beautiful objects and packaging, but perhaps what comes second nature is the realization that these beautiful objects are a crucial part of your social media strategy.
So the ultimate lessons from this discussion? Think about your brand voice in the form of imagery and presentation. If you’re not comfortable with designing the branding yourself, then find someone who is and has a strong grasp on your customer and what they’ll be drawn to. As designers know perhaps better than anyone, good design means more sales, but how do you take it one step further? Don’t take for granted the online sphere and all of its channels, and make sure to keep up to date on all of their features (after all, Instagram now has the capacity for direct sales—a helpful thing to know!). If you design packaging, think about how it can really stand out and how well it can be photographed, regardless of whether it’s in a controlled studio setting or not.
Designers Already Have Tons of Skills To Help Build a Successful Brand
“Stop making your customer feel listened to. Actually listen to them.”— Henry Davis, Glossier
Throughout the duration of the conference, one point rang true for all of the presenters that may be of no surprise to the practicing designer: listen to who you’re marketing to. Like designers, marketers must observe the behavior of their customers for high success. The primary difference between the two is that the designer observes behavior in order to design the best solution while the marketer directly responds to the audience’s emotional hopes and desires.
For designers, the practice of gathering insights is easy, but in order to build a brand, you have to get more into the emotional mindset of the customer. How can you make someone buying something from you feel understood and cared for? Does the marketing that supports your product make someone feel connected to it intimately? This is the job of branding.
So use your well-honed skills in research and use that information to build a connection to your customer that’s hitting the emotional checkpoints. Invest in solid copywriting that sets the right tone and makes people feel emotionally connected to the product. If done well, it’ll make a huge difference.
Businesses That Think Differently Will Have the Most Long-Term Success
“[The culture of innovation] is as much about unlearning as it is learning,” touted Fung Group Chief Catalyst and former IDEO Managing Director Richard Kelly during his talk on the future of learning. What this essentially means is, businesses cannot survive without an evolution that incorporates new technologies, takes risks, and establishes itself as a company in constant adaptation. This trait of adaptation, again, is natural for the working designer and therefore gives them an upper hand in the business world. What’s perhaps most important is using your design skills to create systems within your organization that make for more efficiency, more innovative ways of gathering customer data, and help you stand apart from your competitors. A company like Glossier, for example, with their innovative approach of taking retailers out of the equation and having few physical shopping locations helps create intrigue and solidifies a more intimate connection between them and their online community—thanks to a bold restructuring of a typical business model, they’re cashing in big time.
Let Classic Products Be Reinterpreted
“The best objects can remain themselves while still evolving to the time.” —Paola Antonelli at the Futures Conference
With so many new brands, like Glossier, entering the market with full-force, we often forget about classic brands and how they’re coping with the changing times. For Jonathan Cheung, Head of Global Design at Levi’s, it’s all about understanding where and when to collaborate with outside design teams.
Levi’s x Jacquard by Google Denim Jacket
Letting others reinterpret your product is a scary concept, but over time, it has become the 164 year old denim company’s brand identity. Under Cheung’s supervision, Levi’s partnered with Jacquard by Google to modernize the denim jacket through conductive, connected yarn. Levi’s Made & Crafted has also recently collaborated with Virgil Abloh on his OFF-WHITE FW17 collection, where Abloh reinterpreted classic Levi’s garments in his own way.
Levi’s Made & Crafted x Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh
Allowing other companies that are not direct competitors challenge your product is one way to expand your customer base and raise awareness in new markets. If you allow your product to extend beyond your company in this way, you are taking a major risk—what if a company messes up?—but if you keep a close eye on the action and pick and choose your collaborators strategically like Cheung, you could be in for a surprise. Cheung along with other speakers at the conference emphasized how important control over discovering product is for Millennials. There are only so many times Millennials can discover a classic brand like Levi’s. Cheung and his team were forward-thinking enough to recognize this and adapt their business model so every season is a new discovery for their consumers.
Don’t “push” your product
The biggest point that was made in each and every talk throughout the conference? We no longer live in the age of the infomercial. Customers are no longer interested in being hit over the head with a product; instead, they want to feel as if they discovered it. As Cheung noted in his talk, “use data in a human way, not a manipulative way,” in order to create desire for and belief in your product. In other words, customers nowadays are more likely to be interested in something if they see a company as being authentic and trustworthy; it’s no longer good enough to hit people with clickbait, they want to feel understood. So enough of the product pushing, people—your customers are ready for you to get real.
This creation here is a marvel of ultra-functional design.
Belgium-based furniture maker Timothy Wilmot faced a problem many of us do, which is needing a product that doesn’t exist. In his case, he sought a mobile shop fixture “designed to assist woodworkers all along the construction of a piece of furniture, from the first to the last step.” Essentially, he needed one object that could perform the function of all of these:
“All these designs exist and can be made/bought,” Wilmot writes. “But in my production oriented shop I would have needed two of each to be really useful, that would have cost a fortune and I didn’t have the room any way because then we’re talking about at least 10 different carts/workbenches.” So instead he spent three years perfecting the design of this, his MFSC (Multi-Function Shop Cart):
Pretty unbelievable: A shop cart, height-adjustable assembly table, Festool-style “MFT” dog-holed workbench, a glue-up table, a panel cart and a drying rack all in one.
Oh, and here’s how that clever height-adjustable mechanism works:
The Design Story
While working in my workshop I encountered several problems that were slowing me down or causing frustrations, such as the need for a cart to move around parts from tool to tool, the need for a height adjustable assembly table, the occasional need for additional work benches or the need for drying racks. For most of these problems there are commercial solutions, but these are costly and would have filled my work shop while only being used periodically.
So about 3 years ago in 2014 I had the idea to design a single cart that would solve as much of these problems as possible, it had to be a work bench, a wheel cart, a rack and adjustable in height. As soon as I started drawing a prototype, it became clear that combining these apparent simple functions in a solid and reliable manner, would be extremely complicated as nobody had ever done this. I went through numerous different designs and approaches, but always encountered technical problems or unacceptable compromises.
This project stayed in the back of my head for years, and I noted down and tested each new idea that came up, but it was only in the summer of 2016 that I found a way to solve a major issue that was blocking all progress, mainly the side arm design.
From then on things speeded up, I built a prototype before having finished the design of the lift mechanism. Many other problems showed up, mainly finding a way to operate the lift mechanism easily, and taking away play. This took a few more weeks to solve, but eventually every problem was solved and I built 2 final models straight away in August 2017 for myself, and have been using them since.
One of the major features for me is the ability to do assembly work on it at an adjustable height, gone the days of working on your knees. This was really missing from my work shop as I either had the floor or the top of my assembly table, nothing in between. But again an adjustable assembly table is something all woodworkers need, but only during a specific stage of the fabrication. Most of the time it would just sit in the way.
The MFSC was a great opportunity to incorporate a feature I thought of when using my Bessey KRV clamps with the little support blocs that hold them upright. I thought of building a table with similar notches that would hold the clamps, but again, a table that does only that would be a waste of space most of the time. Here I decided to incorporate this into the flip side of the MFSC, up to then I would like most woodworkers do my clamping work on top of my main work bench. This creates several problems, the first is that it renders the work bench useless as long as the glue hasn’t dried, and second, the glue would drip on my work bench and create a mess.
Doing this on the flip side of my MFSC’s solves this, I can do twice as many glue ups and still keep my main work bench free, I can roll them away and let it dry much longer while keeping the work space free. Also glue drippings don’t matter any more as they fall on the under side of the work top.
Initially I wanted to insert sticks directly into the table to use use it as a rack, but that would have made it too limited in capacity, so I designed these perforated stiles that lock onto the table and can be spaced randomly, they also store inside the MFSC along with the sticks.
Again this is something every woodworker needs at a particular moment during the fabrication, before I had these I would just place all these parts on all my worktops and on the floor. I would plan these operations for the end of the day because the work shop couldn’t be used for at least 10 hours after. I could have bought/made similar racks but just look at the space they take.
Wilmot has more details, such as the list of tools he used to build this and a 30-page plan he’s selling for it, here.
Sometimes graduate shows can be a mixed bag. There are great ideas but poor output or beautiful products without much to say. That said, some such shows are exceptionally interesting, and this is the case with Global Grad Show. The international showcase……
Robots could be released into the countryside to help restore damaged ecosystems, according to the curator of an exhibition held at Dutch Design Week last month.
Arjen Bangma, who curated the Robotanica exhibition in Eindhoven, said that artificial creatures and intelligent devices could step in to take the place of extinct species.
“Mankind has damaged nature and we’re looking at art and design projects to restore ecological systems,” said Bangma, who is director of cultural organisation Transnatural.
“The show is about robotics within nature,” he added. “It’s about how robots can serve nature in a positive way.”
Robotanica brought together a range of proposals by artists and designers, including an artificial woodpecker by Rihards Vitols that scares parasites away from trees by replicating the pecking sound of a real woodpecker.
“The woodpecker is almost gone in the wild, but it is important for the environment because it protects the plants and trees from getting eaten by insects,” Bangma explained.
“As soon as the woodpecker is gone a lot of trees and the plants get damaged. This robotic version mimics the acoustics [of a living woodpecker] so the insects aren’t around to eat the leaves.”
Bangma agreed that it would be better to save real woodpeckers, but added: “You need some kind of in between period when you can use these kinds of technological design improvements to keep the damage as low as possible.”
Rihards Vitols’ robotic woodpecker could be used to scare parasites away from trees
Another project featured in Robotanica was a robot tumbleweed by Shlomi Mir. This mimics the wind-blown plant, using sails to roll around desert areas, collecting environmental data and dispersing seeds as it goes.
“One of the problems we face at the moment is desertification due to mankind,” Bangma said. “The tumbleweed robot explores areas that are difficult to survey, gathering information for scientists and sending it to a data hub.”
The exhibition also featured a range of robot insects that could be released into the wild in swarms to serve human needs such as searching for disaster survivors or surveying remote areas.
The tumbleweed robot gathers data from areas that are difficult for humans to reach
“This form of robotic is really new,” Bangma said. “It’s kind of a reality check on the state of the earth, and where it’s going at the moment. We need to take action now on all kinds of different levels.”
The idea of using robots to help the natural world is similar to a proposal by designer Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, who has suggested using synthetic biology to design artificial creatures to save species and remove pollution.
The DelFly Explorer is a drone that moves like a dragonfly and is capable of autonomous flight
“The idea is that we could preserve or maintain a state of nature using synthetic organisms that are designed to save other species,” Ginsberg told Dezeen in 2013, when she unveiled her project called Designing for the Sixth Extinction. The project explored whether designers could be “designing organisms like we’re designing products now to do something like save nature.”
The Robotanica exhibition took place in Eindhoven at the same time as Dezeen’s Good Design for a Bad World talks, which explored how designers can help solve the big problems facing the world.
Bangma said that designers need to work on “bottom-up” solutions, collaborating with artists and scientists to propose radical new solutions rather than waiting for others to take action.
“It’s really important because [designers] can develop all these different kinds of tools on different levels to help things less worse, or to solve problems,” he said.
“But the projects we see [at Robotanica] are kind of interdisciplinary things between artists, designers and scientists, who come up with these combinations of fantastic ideas to deal with these huge problems. Creatives should get together with scientists and just come up with the ideas on their own, and then try to convince governments to invest.”
Just three of the world’s 100 biggest architecture firms are headed by women and only two have management teams that are more than 50 per cent female, a survey by Dezeen has revealed.
The survey found that women occupy just 10 per cent of the highest-ranking jobs at the world’s leading architecture firms, while 16 firms have no women at all in senior positions.
Our research, which is based on data available on the practices’ own websites, reveals that just one in 10 of top-level roles, including CEOs, COOs, presidents and senior partners, at the 100 biggest international firms are female.
Architect Dorte Mandrup, who runs her own studio in Denmark, described the findings as “quite shocking”.
“It’s interesting too that there seem to be practically no woman holding creative director or lead designer positions,” she added. “The woman that are at top positions have administrative or CEO roles backing up a male star.”
Screenshot from the website of Danish firm Henning Larsen, which is one of just three offices in the top 100 headed by a woman
To compile the data, Dezeen visited the website of each of the 100 biggest architecture firms in the world, as listed in the 2017 edition of the respected World Architecture 100 (subscription website) table of international practices ranked by size.
Many firms proudly list their senior staff on their websites, along with photos and brief biographies. In many cases the senior roles are overwhelmingly held by men and in many cases architects’ staff pages consist of dozens and dozens of male faces, occasionally punctuated by a female.
Women lead only three of the world’s 100 biggest architecture firms
Only three of the 100 companies are headed by a woman. All three of these firms are Scandinavian: Tengbom and White Arkitekter of Sweden, and Henning Larsen of Denmark all have female CEOs.
Six more firms are run by a senior team consisting of both a woman and a man. These are Gensler, Perkins Eastman, Wilmotte & Associés, UNStudio, Morphogenesis and BIG.
Screenshot from the website of Gensler, one of just six firms in the top 100 headed by a man and a woman
Just two firms have management teams that are more than half female. These are White Arkiteker and Tengbom, whose leadership teams and senior staff are 56 per cent and 78 per cent respectively.
Sixteen of the companies we surveyed had no women at all in senior positions. These included well-known firms such as UK-based Atkins and Scott Brownrigg, and US firm Populous.
Other firms without a single senior woman are Nikkon Sekkei of Japan, Stantec of Canada, SmithGroupJJR of the USA, Haeahn of South Korea, Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei of Japan, Sunjin of South Korea, IDOM of Spain, Leo A Daly of the USA, National Engineering Bureau of the UAE, AXS Satow Inc of Japan, GVA of Mexico, CP Kukreja Architects of India, and Gomez Vazquez International of Mexico.
Many others are overwhelmingly male. UK firm Foster + Partners for example, the 14th-biggest practice in the world, has 10 senior executive partners, all of which are men, and 18 senior partners, only one of which is female.
UK firm Foster + Parters has 10 executive partners, all of which are men
Percentage of women decreases steadily at each ascending tier of management
Our research shows that the percentage of women decreases steadily at each ascending tier of management. As already noted, only three of the 100 companies are headed by a woman while just 10 per cent of the very highest leadership positions are held by women.
At the management tier below the top tier – consisting of mainly board members, principals, senior partners and directors – the figure rises to 20 per cent. At the next level down, consisting of roles such as partners and team leaders, women make up 21 per cent of the workforce.
Across all senior and middle management tiers in all 100 companies, women hold 18 per cent of positions.
UK firm Scott Brownrigg has an all-male executive board
By comparison, recent figures published by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards show that 36 per cent of people entering the architecture profession in the USA are women, while just under one in five certificate-holding architects are women.
In the UK, 39 per cent of new architects entering the profession last year were women, yet the number of proportion of architects working in the country is about a quarter.
Figures reveal “old-school thinking” and imply “a prejudice within firms”
“Women architects are not being recognised in these large commercial firms, which is a loss for both,” said Angela Brady, director at London studio Brady Mallalieu Architects and former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
“The lack of women at the top to me implies a prejudice within the firm,” she continued. “My advice to the larger firms is to redress the balance and add talented women architects to your top director level. You will benefit in many ways. If you don’t you will be regarded as old fashioned, out of date and not great people to do business with.”
“I am always disappointed to read surveys that show such a disparity of female to male representation at a senior level,” added Sadie Morgan, co-founder of architecture firm dRMM.
“There is enough credible evidence now showing that a better and more diverse senior team makes for a more successful business. It seems counter intuitive for practices to continue with an outdated mode of working and not try to address this issue.”
Haeahn of South Korea does not have a single woman in its senior team
Dara Huang, who heads architecture studio Design Haus Liberty, said the figures revealed “old-school thinking”.
“It’s not that women are less capable,” she said. “It’s a cultural attitude thinking that women and mothers are ineffective employees and are less committed or not as strong. This further shuts out women in the organisation.”
However, BIG emerges as one of the better firms in terms of gender balance, since it has a female CEO working alongside founding partner and chairman Bjarke Ingels, meaning the top tier of management is half female. Across all senior tiers, including partners, CXOs, directors and associates, BIG is 44 per cent female, with 14 out of 32 positions occupied by women.
It was following this story that Dezeen decided to look into the gender balance at senior level in other firms.
Survey is based on publicly available information on each firm’s website
We looked at the World Architecture 100 (WA100) list to identify the world’s 100 biggest architecture firms. Using publicly available information on each firm’s website, we counted the percentage of female staff at the highest tier of management, including presidents, founders, chairs and other senior roles including “C-suite” positions including CEOs, COOs and so on.
We also noted down figures for the next tier down and the one after that. Each firm has a different structure and uses different job titles, but the hierarchy is usually made fairly clear on the firm’s website. There were only four companies that displayed no information about their management teams.
We then contacted every company we could, apart from a few that provided no contact details, and asked them to verify the information visible on their websites. We then followed up with a second email.
Surprisingly few companies got back to us. We only heard from 27 of the 91 we managed to contact. A handful provided additional information including details of their equality policies, statements or details of initiatives designed to increase diversity.
Since we first started compiling the data, several of the companies have updated the details on their websites, changed URLs or even deleted web pages. We have tried to update our information accordingly but inevitably some figures will quickly go out of date. But the figures are as accurate as we could make them and we believe that our research provides a representative snapshot of the gender balance in the profession’s larger firms today.
Below is the data for each of the 100 companies, in alphabetical order:
10 DESIGN UK
Managing partners: two men Partners/directors: five women, nine men
10 DESIGN is a UK-based firm comprised of architectural, urban, landscape, and interior designers, and CGI specialists.
According to its website, both managing partners are male. There are five female and nine male partners. Therefore, the proportion of women listed on 10 DESIGN’s “people” page is 12.5 per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm our findings.
Chairman and chief executive officer: man Leadership team: two women, eight men Board of directors: two women, seven men
Employing around 1,500 architects, AECOM is the third largest firm in the world according to the WA100. The California-based firm has appeared in Fortune magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies for the last three years.
The firm is headed by a male chairman and chief executive officer. Beneath him is an 11-strong leadership team, three of which are female. There is also a board made up of two women and seven men. In total, the people listed on the “Aecom leadership” page are 20 per cent female.
At the time of publication, AECOM had not responded to our emails to confirm these figures were up to date.
Chairman: man Global board: one woman, 10 men Directors: seven women, 53 male
Founded in Hong Kong in 1985, Global architecture firm Aedas employs 1,400 people across the practice’s 12 international offices. The company is listed on the WA100 as the ninth biggest architecture firm in the world.
The firm has a male chairman supported by a global board made up of 11 people, of which one is female. It has 60 directors, out of which seven are female. These figures, which are slightly different from those on the Aedas website, were provided by the firm. Overall the proportion of women at senior level is 11 per cent.
Managing director: three men Directors: four women, 27 men Regional directors: four women, 13 men
AHR has around 400 total members of staff working across its eight UK offices and other bases in Moscow, Warsaw, Kazakhstan and the Middle East.
According to its website, the practice is headed by three managing directors who are both male. There are four female directors/associate directors and 27 males. There are four female regional directors and 13 male. Therefore, the proportion of women at senior level is 16 per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
CEO and executive director: man Executive team: three women, four men Board of directors, including chairman: seven men
AIDEA was established in Alaska in 1967, where it is still based. The company is led by a male CEO and executive director. There are a further four men on the executive team, and three women. There are seven men of the company’s board of directors. The combined proportion of women listed on the “board” and “executive team” section of its website is 20 per cent.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
Directors: four men Associate directors: five women, 10 men Associates: three women, 14 men
Established in 1989, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris is a London-based architecture practice with offices in Bristol and Amsterdam. It employs 209 architects.
According to its website, all four directors at the firm are male. There are five female associate directors and 10 male, as well as three female associates and 14 men. The proportion of women at director, associate director and associate level is 22 per cent.
The firm had not replied to our email to confirm these figures at the time of publication.
UK architecture practice Allies and Morrison was established in 1984, and it now has offices in both London and Cambridge.
According to its website and as confirmed by the company, both founders are male, and two of the 14 partners are female. Therefore, 11 per cent of the most senior staff at Allies and Morrison are women.
The firm also added: “We are actively promoting women throughout the practice. Of our emerging leadership group – our associate/AD pool – 27 out of 60 (or nearly half) are women. We are an equal opportunities employer and sponsor initiatives to enhance diversity in architecture such as the Women in Architecture programme, and our managing partner is a woman.”
Co-founders: two men Executive directors: one woman, 10 men
Established in Vietnam in 2002, Archetype Group is a multi-disciplinary construction consultancy, now located in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Europe.
According to its website, the firm has two male co-founders and 11 executive directors, of which one is female. Therefore, the executive team is eight per cent female.
The practice had not replied to our emails to confirm these figures at the time of publication.
Directors: one woman, nine men Principals: three women, 25 men
Architectus is an Australian-based firm that has worked across architecture, interior and urban design since it was founded in 1987. It has studios in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Christchurch, Melbourne and Sydney.
Of the 10 directors at Architectus, one is female. Below this, there are 25 male and three female principals. Therefore, of those listed as directors and principals on the firm’s website, the proportion of women is 11 per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication.
Founder and chairman: man Executive committee: three women, seven men
French practice AREP Architects has a workforce of 900 employees and has completed 800 international projects since it was founded in 1997.
According to its website, the founder and chairman of AREP Architects is male. Further leadership is also provided by the a 10-person executive committee, three of which are female. In total, the executive committee is 27 per cent female.
The firm did not respond to our emails asking for confirmation of its staff gender ratio.
Established in 1938, Atkins is a UK-based architecture group with offices that span four continents. The practice employs over 18,000 staff worldwide.
A male president sits at the head of Atkins, aided by an all-male leadership team of nine. Therefore, the leadership team listed on the firm’s website is zero per cent female.
At the time of publication, the firm had not replied to our email to confirm these figures.
ATP is an interdisciplinary architecture firm with around 650 employees. Headquartered in Innsbruck, the practice works on projects primarily in central and eastern Europe.
ATP’s website states that the practice is lead by a board chairman, who is male, and seven managing directors, who are also all male.
ATP later told Dezeen that five of its 68 senior management staff (supervisory and executive board, managing directors and studio heads) are female. Together, this gives a total of five female senior staff members out of a possible 68, or seven per cent.
“ATP architects engineers plays a pioneering role in the promotion of women” said Sven Kühne, ATP’s senior communications manager. “Back in 2012, ATP introduced a women’s task force charged with “taking necessary steps to improve the balance between work, family and leisure'”.
International architecture firm Aukett Swanke has 15 studios across the UK, Germany, Russia, Turkey, UAE, and Czech Republic, and employs 239 architects.
According to its website, the firm has 59 members of senior staff, 14 of these are women. This makes the senior management team 24 per cent female. The company does not specify who its figureheads are.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
Founder: man President and CEO: man Executive vice president: man Directors: seven men
The Tokyo-based engineering and construction company AXS Satow Inc was founded in 1954 by Takeo Sato.
Sato is male, as is the president and CEO of the firm, the executive vice-president, and all of the seven directors. Therefore, the proportion of women listed on the “executive team” section of the firm’s website is zero per cent.
We contacted the practice via its website but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
Chairman: man President: woman CEO: man COO: man Executive vice-presidents: one woman, one man Directors: one woman, six men Managing principals: one woman, three men Senior principals: two men Principals: three women, 17 men
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and founded in 1953, B+H Architects is an architecture, interior design and urban planning firm with offices in America, Asia and the Middle East.
According to its website, the firm is led by a male chairman, a male CEO and a female president. The firm also has a male COO, and one male and one female executive vice-president. There is one female director out of a total of seven, while one of the four managing principals is female. Both senior principals are also male. There are a further 17 male and three female principals. Taken together, the total proportion of women at senior level is 18 per cent.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm its website is up to date.
Managing director: man Directors: one woman, five men Studio directors: three women, eight men
Australian design and architecture company Bates Smart was founded in 1853 by Joseph Reed, and is considered as one of Australia’s oldest architectural firms.
Its website shows a male managing director and six further directors, of which one is female. It also has three females out of 11 studio directors. Therefore, the top two tiers of management at Bates Smart are 22 per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
Established in the UK in 1961, BDP now has studios across the world. According to the firm’s website, the chief executive is male, and only one of the 21 architect directors is female. Therefore, the firm’s leadership is five per cent female.
When contacted by Dezeen, the firm provided additional information, stating that it has 107 staff at principal/director level, of which 15 are female (14 per cent). Of these, 63 are architect principal/directors, of which five are female (eight per cent).
Founder: man CEO: woman Other partners: 10 men CXOs: three women, two men Directors: seven women, nine men Associates: three women, 10 men
Established in 2005, BIG is a group of architects, designers, builders, and thinkers based in Copenhagen, New York and London, and has a total of 451 staff.
The firm is led by founding partner and chairman Bjarke Ingels and a female CEO. The 10 other partners are all male. Therefore, the proportion of women at partner level is eight per cent.
BIG provided further information about its senior team, including CXOs, directors and associates, as shown above. Overall the percentage of women across all senior levels is 44.
Chairman: man Managing director: man Directors: two women, 14 men
Founded in 1958, Broadway Malyan is a global architecture, urbanism and design practice based in the UK, with international offices.
According to its website, the chairman of Broadway Malyan is male, as is the managing director. There are 16 other directors, two of which are female. Therefore, the executive committee is 11 per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
CEO: man Chairman: man Leadership team: nine women, 36 men
Headquartered in Baltimore, CallisonRTKL is an American architecture practice with 23 offices across the globe.
CallisonRTKL’s website states that the practice is led by a male CEO and male chairman. It also discloses that its leadership team is comprised of a further 43 people in total, nine of them are female. Therefore, the firm’s leadership team is 19 per cent female.
When contacted by Dezeen, the firm confirmed this overall leadership percentage is correct. They also added that the practice’s senior leadership (senior vice president/executive directors and above) is 16 per cent female, and the executive committee is 36 per cent female.
CEO: man Firm leaders: one woman, six men Market leaders: one woman, four men Board of directors: two women, seven men
American practice Cannon Design operates from 15 global offices, including locations in Abu Dhabi and Mumbai.
The practice has a male CEO at its head. Seven further firm leaders collectively oversee Cannon Design, one of which is female. The practice also has a board of directors comprised of two women and seven men, and five market leaders, one of which is female. Therefore, according to its website, the top three tiers of the firm’s management team is 18 per cent female.
We contacted the practice via the form on its website, but it had not replied at the time of publication.
Chairman: man CEO: man COO: female CFO: female Partner group: two women, 10 men
CF Møller was established in 1924 and employs 350 people in offices around Scandinavia and in London. According to the “partners and CEO” section of its website, the firm’s senior management team is made up of two women and two men, while its partner group, which also owns the firm, consists of two women and 10 men. Overall one quarter of senior management and partners is female.
When contacted, the firm replied pointing out that its 2016 COP report states that “diversity is the cornerstone of an inclusive and creative high performing workplace”. According to page 17 of the report, women currently make up 42 per cent of the firm’s workforce and 45 per cent of its office managers in Denmark.
Board directors: four men Directors: six women, 29 men
Established in 1959, Chapman Taylor has design studios across Asia, Central and South America, Europe and the Middle East. The website states that the company is led by four male board directors, and has 35 directors, of which six are women. In total, the board directors and directors are 15 per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
CEO: man Chairman: man Executive managing principal: one woman, two men Managing principal: one woman, four men
American practice Corgan have completed several projects across the US and Asia since it was established in 1938.
The practice confirmed that what is displayed on its website is accurate: the president and chairman of Corgan are both male, and one out of three executive managing principals are female. Out of the five managing principals, one is female. This means 20 per cent of senior staff are women.
CP Kukreja Architects has over 200 employees, working on projects in India as well as internationally with clients in the Middle East and Russia.
There are only two members of staff listed on the practice’s “leadership team” page, both of whom are male. Therefore, the proportion of women at the firm’s most senior level is zero per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm its website is up to date.
Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers China
Chairman and managing director: man Deputy managing directors: two men Directors: three women, seven men Assistant directors: one woman, eight men
Asian architectural practice Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers was founded in Hong Kong in 1972. It currently employs 183 architects.
The chairman and managing director of the company is male, as are the two deputy managing directors. Of the 10 directors, three are female, while there is just one woman out of nine assistant directors. Therefore, the proportion of women listed at director level and above on the firm’s website is 18 per cent.
The firm had not replied to our emails asking for confirmation at the time of publication.
Executive chairman and founder: man CEO: man Heads of department: one woman, 10 men Managers: seven women, 20 men
Dewan Architects and Engineers was founded in Abu Dhabi in 1984. Its website states that it is led by a male executive chairman and founder, and a male CEO. There are 11 heads of department, of which one is female, and just seven of the 27 managers are female. Therefore the management team of Dewan Architects and Engineers is 2o per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
CEO: man President: man Executive team: one woman, six men Studio leaders: one woman, eight men Region leaders: one women, seven men
DLR Group are an American interdisciplinary practice. It was established as an architecture and engineering firm in 1966, but now handles planning, interiors, renovations and more.
DLR Group is headed by a male CEO and a male president. A further seven staff members make up the practice’s executive team, out of which one is female. Therefore, the executive team is 11 per cent female.
When contacted by Dezeen, the firm provided additional information: one of the nine studio leaders is female, as is one of the eight region leaders.
DLR Group also stated: “As a firm we have increased our percentage of female professional staff from 25 per cent in 2010 to 38 per cent by 1 October 2017. This has formed a growing next-generation of female leaders in the firm. Forty per cent of our design professionals elevated to principal in the past three years have been women, while 16 regional studio leaders (people leading a specific studio in a region) are female.”
Founder: man Honorary chairman: man Chairman: man CEO: woman Board: three women, 13 men
DP Architects is Singapore’s largest architectural practice, with 1,200 employees. According to the WA100, it is also the 10th largest architecture firm in the world.
According to its website, the founder, honorary chairman and chairman are all male while the CEO is female. The remainder of the board is made up of three women and 13 men. Taken together, the proportion of women at executive and board level is 20 per cent.
The firm had not confirmed these figures at the time of publication.
Directors: three men “Core team”: two women, eight men
Founded in 1988, DSP Design Associates is an architecture, design and master-planning firm based in India.
The firm’s three directors are all male, and out of the 10 people on the “core team”, two are women. According to its website, the senior management is 15 per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm its website is up to date.
Managing director: man Equity board: four men Main management board: five women, 11 men
EPR Architects is a London-based architectural practice founded in 1947.
The firm told Dezeen that it is led by a male managing director, and the firm’s equity board is comprised of four male employees. The firm added that the main management board however includes “one female director and four female associates, or 31 per cent”, making the other 11 members male. Taken together, this makes EPR Architects senior team 24 per cent female.
“Our staff total gender mix has grown from 21 per cent female to 40 per cent female over the past three years; in part due to our efforts in mentoring and flexible working,” the firm added. “We hope that this will lead to an increase in female management over the coming years.”
“61 per cent of all staff employed in the last 12 months were female,” they added.
Senior partners: two men Managing partners: one woman, three men Partners: four women, 14 men
Founded in 1978, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios is a British architectural design firm, headquartered in Bath and London, with additional offices in Belfast and Manchester.
According to its website, the practice has two senior partners, who are both male. There is one female managing partner and three male managing partners. There are a further four female and 14 male partners. This makes the proportion of women at parter-level and above 20 per cent. The company confirmed that these figures are correct.
The company also told Dezeen: “Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios are part-way through a study of opportunities to encourage and facilitate greater diversity, with an additional aim to improve retention, and the promotion, of senior women over the coming years, for the broader benefit of the practice.”
Founder and executive chairman: man Senior executive partners: nine men Senior partners: one woman, 18 men
Founded in 1967 by Norman Foster, Foster + Partners is an international architecture firm with offices in London, Dubai, Madrid and other cities.
Foster himself is listed as the founder and executive chairman of the firm on its website. There are nine male senior executive partners and 19 senior partners, one of which is female. In total, the senior executive parters and senior partners are three per cent female. The firm confirmed these figures.
CEOs: one woman, one man Board of directors: five women, seven men
Gensler is the biggest architecture firm in the world according to the WA100. Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm has over 5,000 staff worldwide and a turnover of $1.8 billion (£1.36 billion).
The company is headed by two CEOs: one male and one female. Its board of directors is comprised of 14 people, five of which are female. This means the firm’s senior team is 43 per cent female. Gensler confirmed that the staffing information on its website is correct.
Founder: man “Management team”: one woman, seven men
Gerben Architekten has offices in Germany, Saudi Arabia and China.
The practice was founded by a man and according to its website has an eight-person management team, which includes one woman. Therefore the proportion of women at management level is 11 per cent.
The firm had not confirmed these figures at the time of publication.
National practice leader: man Strategic leadership team: one woman, four men Sector leaders: one woman, nine men
GHDWoodhead is an integrated design company operating globally through the GHD network of studios and offices.
According to its website, the national practice leader is a man and on the leadership team, there are four men and one woman. There are a further 10 sector leaders, of which one is female. This makes the senior team 13 per cent female. There was no email address listed on its website to confirm these figures.
Founding partners: two men Partners: three men Associate partners: one woman, 10 men
Headquartered in Hamburg, GMP Architekten has constructed over 370 buildings worldwide since it was founded in 1965. In total the practice has over 500 employees that work across its 13 offices.
The website states that GMP’s two founding partners are both male. The practice has three partners, none of which are female. The practice also has 11 associate partners, one is female. These figures were confirmed by the practice, meaning GMP’s founding partners, partners and associate parters are six per cent female.
GMP also sent through the firm’s 2016 gender stats for all its global offices, which state that there are 290 male employees and 236 female employees. Therefore the proportion of women in the entire practice is 32 per cent.
Chairman and founder: man CEO: man Principals: four men Associate design director: four men
Established since 1968, Gomez Vazquez International is an architectural firm with offices in Mexico, USA and Panama.
According to its website, the firm has an all-male senior team, comprised of the chairman and founder, CEO, four principals, and four associate design directors. This makes the proportion of women at the top level zero per cent.
We were unable to contact the firm to confirm these figures.
Founder and executive chairman: man President and CEO: man Vice president: man Directors: 15 men Managers: four men
Specialising in residential projects and masterplanning in the Americas, GVA has offices throughout Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean – it also has a company base in London.
The practice is headed by a male founder and executive chairman, and a male president and CEO. Leadership is also provided by a team made up of a male vice president, 15 male directors and four male managers. Therefore the proportion of women is zero per cent.
We contacted the practice via its website but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
Founded in South Korea in 1990, Haeahn now has offices in Iraq and New York. According to its website, Haeahn is run by five male presidents. Leadership is also provided by the practice’s two vice chairmen, both of which are male. Therefore, the top-tier management of the firm is zero per cent female.
The “people” page of firm’s website does list some women at executive director level, but the first 59 people listed – presumably in order of seniority – are all male.
The firm had not confirmed these findings at the time of publication.
National practice director: man Other “key people”: one woman, 17 men
Founded in 1976 by William Hames and David Sharley, Hames Sharley is an Australia-based firm.
Currently, the national practice director is a man. According to its website, there are 18 “key people” and out of those, one is a woman. Therefore, the proportion of female “key people” is five per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication.
Chairman and executive officer: man Board of directors: one woman, six men
HDR is a multi-disciplinary American architecture practice that has 10,000 employees in 225 offices around the world. The firm is listed on the WA100 as the fifth largest firm in the world.
According to its website, HDR is headed by a male chairman and chief executive officer, and is overseen by a board of directors made up of one woman and six men. This makes the board 13 per cent female.
We contacted HDR via its website but they had not replied at the time of publication to confirm these figures were up to date.
CEO: man Managing directors: man Corporate advisors: seven men Department leadership: three women, 36 men
Heerim Architects’ head office is located in Seoul. Since it was founded in 1970, the South Korean practice has grown to a workforce of 1,100 employees.
Heerim Architects is led by a male CEO and two male managing directors. The board of corporate advisors consists of seven men. The practice also has 39 department leaders, three of which are women. Therefore six per cent of staff listed under the “leadership” section of the firm’s website are female.
At the time of publication, the firm had not confirmed these figures were up to date.
CEO: male Partners: 14 men Senior associates: three women, 22 men
HENN is an international architecture office with offices in Munich, Berlin and Beijing, established in 1979.
The firm is led by a male CEO and an all-male team of 14 partners. There are 25 senior associates; three are female and 22 are male. Therefore, the proportion of female partners and senior associates at HENN is 7.5 per cent.
HENN had not confirmed these figures at the time of publication.
CEO: female Partners: five women, 10 men International partners: two women, two men
Founded in Scandinavia in 1959, Henning Larsen Architects have since expanded to offices in Munich, New York, Riyadh, and Hong Kong.
Henning Larsen Architects told Dezeen that the firm is headed by a female CEO and five out of the 15 parters are female. Two out of four partners in Henning Larsen’s international subsidiaries are also female. This makes 37 per cent of the partners female.
President and CEO: man Executive vice president: man Executive vice president: man Board of directors: four men
Headquartered in Dallas, HKS is an architecture practice with projects in over 1,500 cities across the world. It employs almost 700 architects.
According to its website, the president and CEO is male, as are the two executive vice presidents. The remainder of the board of directors is made up of four men. Therefore the firm’s executive- and director-level management is zero per cent female.
The firm had not confirmed these figures at the time of publication.
President: man Chairman and CEO: man Firm-wide leaders: two women, four men
HOK is a global architecture firm that employs 1,700 people across three continents. It is the eight largest firm in the world according to the WA100.
According to the HOK website, the practice is headed by a male president, and a male chairman and CEO. There are six other firm leaders, two of which are women. Therefore the proportion of women according to the “firm-wide” leadership section of its website is 25 per cent.
HOK had not confirmed these figures at the time of publication.
Managing directors: two men Directors and partners: two women, 13 men
Based in Germany, HPP Architects was established by Helmut Hentrich in 1933.
According to the “directors and partners” section of its website, it is now led by two male managing directors and has 15 other directors and partners, two of which are female. This means that 12 per cent of the directors and partners are female.
HPP confirmed that the information on its website is correct.
Hyundai Architects & Engineers Associates South Korea
CEO: man
Korean architecture firm Hyundai Architects & Engineers Associates was established in 1965. Its CEO is male, as shown on its website, but no other employee information is available.
CEO: man President: man Chairman of the board: man Board of directors: two women, two men
IBI Group is an integrative architecture firm that specialises in planning, engineering and technology. It is number six on this year’s WA100, employing 2,500 people across offices in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
IBI has a male CEO, president and board chairman. The rest of the board consists of two women and two men. The firm also has a management team made up of a further 22 staff members, two of which are female. This means the board is 40 per cent female while the management team is nine per cent female.
This information was taken from the IBI website and had not been confirmed as up to date at the time of publication.
Founded by Rafael Escolá in 1957, international architectural firm IDOM now employs 243 architects. It has one president and three managing directors, all are male. The company’s figureheads are zero per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
Chairman: man Members of management board: one woman, nine men
Itten+Brechbuhl has a workforce of around 300 staff members that are spread throughout its seven offices in Switzerland and four other European bases.
According to its website, the practice is headed by a male chair and a management board of nine male staff members and one female. Therefore, the proportion of women at board level is nine per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm its website is up to date.
Jaspers-Eyers Architects is an international practice with studios in Brussels, Leuven and Hasselt, currently employing around 175 architects.
The practice was founded by two men. No other information about its employees is shown on its website and the firm had not responded to our emails at the time of publication.
CEO: man C-suite leaders: five men Executives: 15 men
Headquartered in Seoul, Junglim Architecture has a team of over 500 architects that work on large-scale projects locally and internationally.
According to its website, the CEO of Junglim Architecture is male. Leadership is also provided by five C-suite leaders, none of which are female, and 15 all-male executives. Therefore the firm’s top-level management is zero per cent female.
We contacted the practice via its website but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
Chairman: man President and CEO: woman Corporate leadership team: three women, 15 men
KEO International Consultants is based in the Middle East and employs 290 architects.
According to the “corporate leadership” page of its website, the company has a male chairman, and a female president and chief executive officer. It lists 18 further corporate leaders, of which three are female. Thus the female proportion of the leadership team 20 per cent.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm its website is up to date.
Kohn Pedersen Fox USA President: man Chairman: man Principals: two women, 21 men Directors: 12 women, 27 men
New York-based architectural practice Kohn Pedersen Fox was founded in 1976 and has offices in New York, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Abu Dhabi.
According to its website, the practice has a male president and a male chairman. It has 23 principals, of which two are female, and there are 12 female directors of of a total of 39 directors.
The firm was one of the few that responded at length to our requests for further information, stating that it has 27 male and 13 female senior associate principals, as well as 33 male and 24 female associate principals. Therefore in what the company considers its top staff positions, 32 per cent of employees are female.
When asked about its thoughts on gender ratios, KPF president Jamie von Klemperer said: “KPF strives to maintain an equitable practice and provide opportunities to our diverse, multicultural staff and leadership. We are actively increasing female participation in the firm’s partnership, and have committed to doubling our female senior leadership by the Fall of 2017.
“Announcements to this effect will be made at that time. The firm aspires to reach a 50 per cent or greater female leadership and continues to expand our perspective with representation from a myriad of cultures, ideologies, and backgrounds.”
Kume Sekkei was established in 1932, and now has approximately 550 members of staff. The practice’s head office is located in Tokyo.
Kume Sekkei’s website only provided information on the practice’s CEO, who is male. The company did not respond to requests for more staff information.
Chairman: man CEO: man President: man Management team: one woman, seven men
Founded in 1984, Kunwon are a Seoul-based architectural practice that focusses on residential and urban environment design.
According to its website, Kunwon has a male chairman, a male vice chairman/CEO and a male president. Of the other eight people listed on the “people leading Kunwon” section of its website, one is female. Therefore the top management tier is nine per cent female.
The email provided on the firm’s website is not valid so we were unable to contact Kunwon for confirmation.
Headquartered in Canada, Lemay Michaud has offices in both Montreal and Quebec.
According to its website, the founders of the practice are both male. There are five female partners and eight male. This makes the proportion of women at associate level 33 per cent.
Lemay Michaud had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to verify these figures found on its website.
Chairman and CEO: man President: man Corporate leaders: seven men Office leaders: nine men
Leo A Daly was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Omaha, USA.
The chairman and CEO of Leo A Daly is male, as is the president. Of the seven other corporate leaders and nine office leaders, there are no women. Therefore, the firm’s “corporate” and “office” leadership as listed on its website is zero per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
Based in Scandinavia, Link Arkitektur was founded in 1995, and has a male CEO. According to its website, the company has 14 “key people”, six of which are women. This means the company is led by a 40-per-cent female team.
The practice did not confirm these figures but told us: “The Link Arkitektur gender ratio on senior staff is 45 per cent male and 55 per cent female.”
Established in 1971, MG2 is an architecture firm based in Seattle, Washington.
According to the firm, the CEO of MG2 is male and four of the 18 people of the firm’s “leadership team” are women. Therefore, the proportion of women at the firm’s most senior level is five per cent.
“MG2’s goal is to achieve equitable representation of women throughout all levels of our firm,” the firm told Dezeen. “Over recent months, female staff across offices have partnered to draft a corporate equity plan set to debut this fall. Firm leadership is in the process of launching an internal equity advocacy committee comprised of male and female staff to oversee the plan’s implementation.”
President and CEO: man Deputy president: man Executive vice presidents: four men
Headquartered in Tokyo, Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei was the design division of the giant Mitsubishi Estate property company until 2001, when it became a separate company.
According to its website, it is led by a male president and CEO, a male deputy president and four male executive vice presidents. Therefore the firm’s leadership is zero per cent female.
We contacted the practice via its website but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
Founded in 1996, India-based Morphogenesis is a cross-disciplinary team comprised of architects, interior designers, landscape architects, urban designers, 3D visualisers and researchers.
According to the Morphogenesis website, one of the two founding partners is female and the other is male. The staffing structure below this point is unclear.
The firm told Dezeen that “while there isn’t a policy as such for gender balance at the firm, we do have a FLEX policy in place for women employees,” and “the current female to male ratio at Morphogenesis is exactly 1:1.”
National Engineering Bureau is a consultancy firm that was established in 1976. It is located in the centre of Abu Dhabi with branch offices in Alain, also in the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.
The three senior figures listed on its website are male: two partners and a general manager. Therefore, the company’s figureheads are zero per cent female.
The company had not replied to our email requests for further information at the time of publication.
C-suite leaders: Partner and director of communications: female Partner and COO: female Managing partner: male Design partner: male Other managing partners and partners: one women, 12 men
Founded in Seattle in 1943, NBBJ is an architectural design company based in Seattle, Washington.
NBBJ told Dezeen that the firm is run by four C-suite leaders, two of which are female and two male. All C-suite leaders have partner or managing partner titles, then there are a further 13 partners, one of which is female.
Therefore, the proportion of female C-suite leaders is 50 per cent and other partners is 26 per cent.
Executive chairman: man President and CEO: man Other executives: 30 men
Headquartered in Tokyo, Nihon Sekkei has grown to a workforce of nearly 1,000 employees since its establishment in 1967. The practice has six offices across Japan, as well as three further spaces in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Its website states that it has a male chairman and male president/CEO. The “leadership” section of Nihon Sekkei’s website lists a further 30 male executives, meaning the percentage of females at the top level is zero.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm its website is up to date.
Chairman: man Vice chairman: man Vice presidents: three men Executive committee: 24 men
Tokyo-based Nikken Sekkei is an architectural consultancy group that employs over 2,400 people. According to the WA100, it is the second biggest firm in the world.
The practice also has three vice presidents, all of which are male, and an executive committee of 24, all of which are male. Therefore the firm’s senior management team is zero per cent female.
At the time of publication, the company had not replied to our emails to confirm these figures.
Principal partner and chairman: man CEO: man Partners: two women, five men
Based in Oslo, Nordic Office of Architecture is an architecture practice that was founded in 1979, with additional offices in Copenhagen and London.
According to its website, the firm has a male chairman and male CEO, and there are five male partners and two female. This makes the proportion of women 22 per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to verify these figures found on its website.
Established in Hong Kong in 1868, P&T Architects has multiple offices in Asia. It has over 2,000 employees working in over 70 cities.
According to its website, the management team is made up of 38 group directors, seven of which are female. This means the firm’s management team is 18 per cent female.
The firm did not confirm these figures but gave us the gender figures for the architecture department at its Hong Kong office, which employs 125 women and 320 men. This makes the proportion of women 28 per cent.
Board of directors/senior principals: eight men Principals: 15 women, 40 men
Page is a multidisciplinary architecture practice with a workforce of around 500 members of staff spread across six US offices and one in Dubai.
All eight staff members listed on Page’s “senior principals/board” webpage are male. There are 15 female principals and 40 male principals. Therefore, the proportion of women in the top two tiers at Page is 24 per cent.
The company had not replied to our email at the time of publication.
President and CEO: man Partners: nine men Managing principals: two men Principals: two women, 10 men Directors: two women, three men
Architecture and engineering practice PBK Architects is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with offices across America. It employs 173 architects.
According to its website, the president and CEO of the company is male, as are the nine partners. There are two male managing principles, and two female principles out of an overall 12. There are also two female directors and three male directors. Therefore, the proportion of women listed as figureheads and at partner, principal and director level on the firm’s website is 14 per cent.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm our findings.
Headquartered in Chicago, Perkins + Will has 23 other offices around the globe. It is the fourth largest firm in the world according to the WA100, employing around 2,000 people worldwide.
According to the firm’s website, the CEO of the company is male. There are also 19 firm leaders, seven of which are female. The people listed on the “firm leaders” page are therefore 35 per cent female.
Perkins + Will had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
Co-founder and chairman: man Founding partner: woman Principal and executive directors: one woman, seven men Principals: four women, eight men
American practice Perkins Eastman focuses on planning, design and consultancy. It has 10 offices across the US and another five internationally.
The firm is led by a male co-founder and chairman, and a female founding partner. According to the Perkins Eastman website, the firm has eight further principal and executive directors, one of which is female. The practice also has 12 principals, four of which are female. Taken together, the proportion of women at director and principal level is 27 per cent.
The firm had not confirmed these figures at the time of publication.
Founders: 10 men Managing director: man Senior principals: 19 men
Headquartered in Kansas City, architecture and design firm Populous is led by 10 male founders and a male managing director. According to the firm’s website, there are a further 19 male senior principals. Therefore Populous’ management team is zero per cent female.
The firm had not responded to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these figures.
Progetto CMR Engineering Integrated Services Italy
CEO: man President: one man Co-founder and partner: one woman
Founded in 1995, Progetto CMR Engineering Integrated Services is an engineering and construction company based in Milan, with additional offices in Rome and Tianjin.
According to its website, the CEO is male. The president is also male and the partner/co-founder is female. Therefore, of the staff listed on its website, the proportion of women is 33 per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these figures.
Established in 1947, Purcell is an architectural design practice with offices in the UK and Asia Pacific.
According to the firm’s website, the CEO is male, and there are nine female partners and 18 male partners. This makes the proportion of women at the most senior level 32 per cent.
The company had not confirmed these figures at the time of publication.
Founder and chairman: man Vice chairman: man Managing director: man Directors: one woman, 13 men
The architectural and interior design firm Ronald Lu & Partners was established in Hong Kong in 1976. According to its website, the chairman and vice chairman are male, as is the managing director. Only one of the 14 directors is female. This makes the company’s management team six per cent female.
Ronald Lu & Partners confirmed these figures and also told Dezeen that they are “an equal opportunity employer.”
“We provide our employees with numerous family friendly policies/arrangements such as family care leaves and flexible working hours to assist them in maintaining healthy and positive family relationships,” the firm told Dezeen.
“We also care very much the female employees in the postnatal period. Almost 10 years ago, we set up a ‘nursing room’ in our office providing them with a clean and quiet environment for breast pumping supported with appropriate facilities for storing their breast milk. We also offer each of them an extra five-day full wage maternity leave for them to taking better care of themselves (physically and mentally) and their newborn babies.
“In addition, we are very proud to say that we were the first architectural firm in Hong Kong providing male employees five-day full wage paternity leave since 2011 which was even commenced much earlier than the statutory three-day paternity leave by the Hong Kong government.”
“RLP’s employment decisions made are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, nationality, gender, age, marital status, or any other status,” the company added.
Chairman: man CEO: man Board of directors: three men
Scott Brownrigg is headquartered in London, but also has offices in four other UK locations, including Edinburgh and Cardiff.
The firm is lead by a male CEO and male chairman. There are three male members on the board of directors. At the most senior level, the proportion of women at Scott Brownrigg is zero per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication, so this information was found from the firm’s website.
Headquartered in London, Sheppard Robson also operates out of studios in Manchester, Glasgow and Abu Dhabi. The practice also has its own interior design group called ID:SR.
A team of 25 partners lead Sheppard Robson, out of which three are female, making the proportion of women at this level 12 per cent. No further staff are listed on the firm’s website.
The firm did not respond to our email to confirm these figures.
Chairperson: man President: man Executive managing director: man Directors: two men
Founded in 1957, Showa Sekkei is an architecture firm headquartered in Osaka, Japan, with 104 architects employed.
According to its website, both the chairperson and president are male. The executive managing director, and two directors are also male. Therefore, of the “officers” listed on the firm’s “corporate profile” webpage, the proportion of women is zero per cent.
We contacted the practice via its website but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
SmithGroupJJR has offices in 10 different American states, as well as one in Shanghai, China. According to its website, the practice has a male president and two further male managing partners. Therefore, the proportion of female figureheads at SmithGroupJJR is zero per cent. The management structure beyond this point is unclear.
At the time of publication, the firm had not responded to our emails to confirm these figures were up to date.
Stantec is a Canadian architecture firm with around 20,000 employees working in 400 offices worldwide. According to its website, Stantec has a male president and CEO, and a further 14 male corporate leaders. Therefore the firm’s corporate leadership team is zero per cent female.
Stantec had not replied to our emails at the time of publication.
CEO and president: man COO: man Vice presidents: two men Managing directors: five men Executive directors: five men Directors: four men
Founded in 1975, the South Korea-based engineering and architecture company Sunjin has a male CEO and president, and a male COO.
According to the staff page on the firm’s website, Sunjin’s senior team is comprised of two vice presidents, five executive directors, five managing directors, and four directors, and all are male. In total, this means the senior management is zero per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm these findings.
Established in 1990 by Murat Tabanlıoğlu and his father Hayati Tabanlıoğlu, Tabanlıoğlu Architects is an architectural firm based in Istanbul, Turkey.
According to the website, the firm has two female and three male partners, making the figureheads 40 per cent female. The staffing structure beyond this point is unclear.
The firm told Dezeen: “We have 166 employees in total, 89 of which are female, which is 53 per cent. Two out of the three design directors are female and in total six out of the eight director positions are also female.”
Tengbom has 600 employees working in the practice’s 11 offices located in Sweden and Finland.
A female CEO is at the head of Tengbom Architects. The website also states it has a further eight-person group executive board. Six of these members are women. In total, the “group executive board” is 78 per cent female.
At the time of publication, the firm had not confirmed these figures were up to date.
Managing directors: four men Directors (including project director and design director): one woman, six men Principals: 15 men
Formed in 1990, the Buchan Group operates across seven locations in Australia and New Zealand where it is based, with offices also in London, Shanghai and Dubai.
The company has four male managing directors and seven directors, of which only one is female. There are a further 15 male principals. Therefore, the proportion of women listed on the “directors and principals” section of the firm’s website is four per cent.
The company told Dezeen that they have “implemented and taken part in initiatives including the 100 Women in Property programme“.
Principal directors: one woman, eight men Directors: seven women, 34 men
Founded in 1921 by Sir Thomas Bennett, tp bennett is an architectural, interiors and town planning practice with its headquarters located in Bankside, London.
According to its website, one of the principal directors is female and eight are male. Seven women are directors and 34 men. Therefore, the proportion of female principal directors and directors is 16 per cent.
The company had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to confirm our findings.
Co-founders: one man, one woman Partners: one woman, three men Directors: two women, three men
Founded in 1988, UNStudio was grown to a workforce of 200 staff members that work across 27 countries. The practice has company headquarters in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
UNStudio was co-founded by a man and a woman. Leadership is provided by the four partners, of which one is female. There are two female directors and three male directors. In the top three tiers of those listed on the firm’s “team” webpage, the proportion of women is 36 per cent. The company confirmed these figures are up to date.
UNStudio sent Dezeen a lengthy statement setting out its views on the subject of gender equality. “At UNStudio we firmly believe in maintaining a culture where individual talent is recognised and rewarded, regardless of gender,” it began. “It is extremely important to us that no member of our team would ever feel they had less chance of promotion because of their gender. As such we actively encourage, facilitate and reward ambition across the board.”
The statement, which we have not published in full for reasons of space, ends: “We are also all too aware that discrimination does exist within the profession. However at UNStudio we believe that talented minds are far too valuable to waste and that perhaps the biggest challenge facing the practice is to ensure that such waste never occurs as the result of unconscious prejudices.”
While headquartered in France, Valode & Pistre Architects is a global architecture practice with other offices in Moscow, Beijing, Shanghai and Warsaw.
As shown on its website, and confirmed by the company, both founders of Valode & Pistre Architects are male, and two of the four partners are female. Therefore, at partner level, the proportion of women is 33 per cent.
CEO: woman Vice president: one woman, one man Executive management: 12 women, nine men
White Arkitekter is Europe’s third-largest architecture firm, with 16 offices spread across Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the UK.
The firm’s website states that it has a female CEO, and one male and one female vice president. There are 21 other executive management staff listed, of which 12 are women. Therefore the firm’s executive management team is 58 per cent female.
The company did not respond to our emails asking for confirmation of our findings.
President: man Managing director: woman Directors: three men
Founded by Jean-Michel Wimotte in 1975, Wilmotte & Associés has grown to a workforce of 225 employees that operate in 27 countries.
At Wilmotte & Associés, the president is male and the managing director is female. There are three male directors and no female directors. Therefore, the firm’s senior management team is 20 per cent female.
The firm had not replied to our emails at the time of publication to verify these figures that were found on its website.
Managing director: man Deputy directors: two men Executive directors: one woman, three men
Architectural practice Wong Tung & Partners was founded in Hong Kong in 1963, where its headquarters remains.
According to its website, the firm’s managing director and two deputies are all male, and just one out of the four executive directors is female. In total, this means the firm’s top-level management is 14 per cent female.
The firm had not responded to or emails at the time of publication.
Non-executive director and chairman: man Non-executive director: woman CEO: man Board: two women, four men
According to the WA100, Woods Bagot is the seventh largest architecture practice in the world, with 850 staff members working across 17 studios that span four continents.
According to its website, Woods Bagot has a nine-person board of directors, three of which are female. The board includes a male non-executive director and chairman, a female non-executive director, and a male CEO. In total the board is 33 per cent female. In addition it has 74 principals/leaders, 18 of which are female, or 24 per cent.
However, the firm told Dezeen that its website is being updated to represent recent staff promotions, which include an additional female board member. The firm said it has 17 directors, of which five are female, and that roughly 25 per cent of its workforce is female.
“We have numerous initiatives underway that focus on equality and balancing these percentages,” the firm’s global communication lead Pam Raymond told Dezeen.
Managing partner: man Partners: one woman, 14 men Principals: 28 women, 43 men
Headquartered in Portland, ZGF Architects have a further four offices in the US, as well as a base in Vancouver, Canada.
ZGF Architects has a male managing partner and 15 other partners, one of which is female. The practice also has 71 principals, 28 of which are female. Therefore, the proportion of women on ZGF’s “leadership” web page is 33 per cent.
We contacted the firm via its website, but we received no response at the time of publication.
Architects Rossana Hu and Jaime Oliver discuss designing religious, arts and civic facilities for the collective experience at the World Architecture Festival 2017 in Berlin. Watch the livestream here from 2pm UK time.
Dezeen is media partners for World Architecture Festival 2017, which this year takes place in Berlin in conjunction with the Inside festival of interior design.
We will be broadcasting a number of talks and seminars over the next few days from both events – including talks by Pierre de Meuron and Kim Cook – as well as conducting video interviews with the winners.
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