From North America to the Danish bookfair: Our book has been on tour

Feb 2, 2024

It has been a busy time for the book Untold Stories: About Women, Gender and Architecture in Denmark, which traveled all over Denmark and even crossed the Atlantic.[SR1] 

With copies of the book in their suitcases, Svava Riesto and Henriette Steiner set off for the USA in November. They were going to talk about this publication at a number of universities and meet collaboration partners and sources of inspiration.

The University at Buffalo was the first stop on the trip where Svava Riesto and Henriette Steiner presented the book Untold Stories. On Women, Gender and Architecture in Denmark at seven universities in North America.

During their trip, they visited the University at Buffalo, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Columbia University in New York, giving lectures and seminars for researchers, PhD students, local architectural associations, and wider audiences.

Audiences in the USA were especially interested in how the research team of Women in Danish Architecture had worked with archives and contributed to expanding the collections of official archives by all the new materials that the project group has received. Many asked how the researchers had engaged with the general public through books, podcasts, and exhibition.

One of the students at the University at Buffalo, Nirmiti Pandit, documented the content of the lecture with this beautiful hand-drawn poster.

Henriette Steiner then continued the trip by going on to Canada, where she shared more experiences from the research and book project on women’s architecture with peers at Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism.

Meanwhile in Danmark the Foundation for Entrepreneurship had chosen to nominate the project Women in Danish Architecture to their Diversity Award. The picture shows entrepreneur Le Gammeltoft og Pernille Berg,  head of research and programmes at the Foundation for Entrepreneurship, presenting the nominees at the Digital Tech Summit in Copenhagen in November.

From bookfair to wish list

November is also the time for the Danish bookfair Bogforum, whichdrew fans of all kinds of literature to Copenhagen’s Bella Center. On the fair’s large Theme Stage, Svava Riesto, Henriette Steiner, and Jannie Rosenberg Bendsen talked about the book in conversation with historian Birgitte Possing and journalist Karsten R.S. Ifversen.

Later in November, the people of Aarhus had an opportunity to hear more about woman architects from the past when Jannie Rosenberg Bendsen visited the famous Kristian F. Møller bookshop to talk about the book.

Residents of Aarhus could also her about women in architectural history, when Jannie Rosenberg Bendsen presented the book at the more than 100 year old bookstore Kristian F. Møller at the central square Store Torv in Aarhus.

In December, readers got one last chance to put Untold Stories: About Women, Gender and Architecture in Denmark on their Christmas lists. The national newspaper Politiken published its annual list of gift ideas for book lovers under the headline “The best books of the year.” Recommending Untold Stories, the paper’s reviewers wrote:

“Once and for all, the myth that female architects were ‘merely’ the colleagues or wives of male architects has been killed off. In fact, women could simply do it for themselves.”