Encouraging parity and highlighting the works and careers of women architects so that young women can draw inspiration from existing female models: this is the objective of the Women Architects Prize. Organized by the Association for Research on the City and Habitat (Arvha) and supported by the City of Paris, this prize celebrates its twelfth edition in 2024. Three hundred and twenty applications were submitted this year. In total, 1,120 projects were presented.
Who won the grand prize?
The 2024 Woman Architect Prize went to Maud Caubet for her work. Graduated from the École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-La Villette in 2003, the Frenchwoman founded her eponymous agency three years later. His firm has around twenty employees and works on construction and renovation projects for offices, housing, hotels and public facilities, promoting mixed uses.
His team notably designed the rehabilitation of the Château HBHC, a former Franco-British hospital built between 1872 and 1879 and listed as a Historic Monument, which will become a co-working place in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine). In the same town, she designed the L'Oréal head office in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine).
Among its projects, we can also cite the restructuring of the Racine Tower, the former headquarters of the National Forestry Office built in 1970, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. “Maud Caubet Architectes brings small and large scales to the same level in the design of its projects, ensuring links between architecture, design and the landscape in which they are located.“, writes the jury in a press release.
Other architects also praised
Sara by Giles Dubois won the International Prize for her work. She is the co-founder of the international agency MGM Morales de Giles Arquitectos, founded in 2004 with José Morales. The firm designed the Lumen building in Paris-Saclay and numerous projects in Spain, including the Nijar theater in Almeria and the Ictam hospital in Seville. With a doctorate in architecture, Sara de Giles Dubois teaches at the School of Architecture in Seville, Spain. She was curator of the Spanish Architecture and Urban Planning Biennial in 2018 and 2019, and has won numerous international awards.
The Young Woman Architect prize was awarded to Margaux Puech-Pelipenko for her work. The HMONP architect graduated in 2013 from Ensap Bordeaux and is the co-founder of Atelier b2p architecture, a Bordeaux firm created in 2014. She is the winner of the 40 under 40 design award 2022. She has imagined projects in Bordeaux and on the Atlantic coast.
As for the Original Work prize, it was given to the Spanish architect and urban planner Beatriz Ramo Lopez de Angulo for her “Start” project of several housing buildings in Ivry-Sur-Seine, in the Paris region. The base is made up of shops and business premises and the upper parts of housing (duplex, central circulation or passageway). Shared terraces and multipurpose rooms have been added.
