Suzana Antonakaki: A 'Peripheral' Female Voice in Modern Architecture

Re-centring overlooked women in the history of modern architecture has reinvigorated debates in the field. But most of these recent studies focus on female practitioners who worked in the Western European and North American ‘centres’ of modern architecture. As a result, women architects from the ‘peripheries’ seem to now be twice marginalised in the history of modern architecture.  

This talk focuses on one of the alleged ‘peripheral’ women architects, Suzana Antonakaki (1935-2020). Similarly to several of her female peers worldwide, Antonakaki’s work developed in the context of the collaborative practice Atelier 66. When the projects of this practice were globally heralded as flagship projects of critical regionalism by Alexander Tzonis & Liane Lefaivre and Kenneth Frampton in the 1980s, they were customarily associated with the work of Dimitris Pikionis, Aris Konstantinidis, Le Corbusier and Aldo van Eyck. In this context, Antonakaki’s distinctive thinking around architecture, including her wide-ranging references to philosophy, poetry and literature, has been overshadowed. Through her public talks and lectures, Antonakaki’s sophisticated approach to modern architecture emerges as a unique female voice that contributes and further expands the discourse of critical regionalism in architecture.          

Host or Publisher The Hellenic Centre