JANET STREET-PORTER: If women designed cities they would be stylish and friendly, not brutal displays of machismo
Smart girl, Lauren Marbe. This
16-year-old might have spent two years on the West End stage in the
chorus of Joseph, but she's taken her science GCSE a year early and
achieved a double A*.
Lauren, from Essex, is a normal teenager who likes blonde hair, fake tans, watching TOWIE and having fun. What makes her so special is that she doesn't want to be Denise Van Outen, Rihanna or Cheryl Cole when she leaves school, but has set her sights on gaining a place at Cambridge and is determined to qualify as an architect.
Lauren hit the headlines recently after completing an IQ test at school in Loughton and scoring 161 - proving that she's smarter than Einstein, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking. Go girl!
My IQ might not be up there with
Lauren's, but at her age I had the same ambition - and after my A-levels
I managed to gain a place at the prestigious Architectural Association
School of Architecture in London.
In my year, there were 95 boys to just five girls, but over the years, more and more women started training - and now the numbers are about equal.
But 40 years after I left my studies for a career in journalism, the number of women who work as qualified architects is still woefully low compared to other professions.
I believe that if women designed our cities and our shopping centres, they would be child and people friendly, stylish and welcoming, not brutal displays of machismo. I can't imagine a woman designing the stark concrete jungle of London's South Bank, the silly Gherkin, or the ludicrously named Shard, can you?
While 44 per cent of doctors and 47 per cent of solicitors are female, only 21 per cent of architects are women.
I'll tell you why this matters. Last week, I read a disturbing newspaper headline: 'City of the future where everyone is so happy to live 15 minutes from an airport.'
Honestly, can you imagine anything worse than living, working, studying, shopping and trying to have quiet downtime all within earshot of a runway? This nightmare scenario was dreamt up by a bloke, naturally - John Kasarda of the University of North Carolina - and presented to Boris Johnson and the government's Airport Commission as a possible blueprint for the airport in the Thames Estuary (a project I loathe so much I shake with rage when I even write about it).
Impressed, Boris said that Professor Kasarda 'left many lessons for us to ponder'.
If women designed city centres, they would be attractive and sympathetic places, not windswept empty piazzas punctuated with towering office blocks, where transport hubs dominate and life revolves around commerce and executive living.
Most of the new building in the UK is designed by 50 per cent of the available gene pool. What a waste. I wish Lauren the best of luck.
Lauren, from Essex, is a normal teenager who likes blonde hair, fake tans, watching TOWIE and having fun. What makes her so special is that she doesn't want to be Denise Van Outen, Rihanna or Cheryl Cole when she leaves school, but has set her sights on gaining a place at Cambridge and is determined to qualify as an architect.
Lauren hit the headlines recently after completing an IQ test at school in Loughton and scoring 161 - proving that she's smarter than Einstein, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking. Go girl!
Lauren Marbe, 16, left, wants to be an
architect, and Janet Street-Porter wishes she would to stop 'brutal
displays of machismo' in city skylines such as London's, right
In my year, there were 95 boys to just five girls, but over the years, more and more women started training - and now the numbers are about equal.
But 40 years after I left my studies for a career in journalism, the number of women who work as qualified architects is still woefully low compared to other professions.
I believe that if women designed our cities and our shopping centres, they would be child and people friendly, stylish and welcoming, not brutal displays of machismo. I can't imagine a woman designing the stark concrete jungle of London's South Bank, the silly Gherkin, or the ludicrously named Shard, can you?
'I believe that if women designed our cities and
our shopping centres, they would be child and people friendly, stylish
and welcoming, not brutal displays of machismo'
Dame Zaha reckons that female
architects aren't trusted with big projects, and she speaks from bitter
experience. A new survey in Architects Journal claims that women are
paid far less than their male counterparts. Two out of three say they
have been bullied or suffered discrimination at work, as well as
enduring outright hostility from the building trade. While 44 per cent of doctors and 47 per cent of solicitors are female, only 21 per cent of architects are women.
I'll tell you why this matters. Last week, I read a disturbing newspaper headline: 'City of the future where everyone is so happy to live 15 minutes from an airport.'
Honestly, can you imagine anything worse than living, working, studying, shopping and trying to have quiet downtime all within earshot of a runway? This nightmare scenario was dreamt up by a bloke, naturally - John Kasarda of the University of North Carolina - and presented to Boris Johnson and the government's Airport Commission as a possible blueprint for the airport in the Thames Estuary (a project I loathe so much I shake with rage when I even write about it).
Impressed, Boris said that Professor Kasarda 'left many lessons for us to ponder'.
If women designed city centres, they would be attractive and sympathetic places, not windswept empty piazzas punctuated with towering office blocks, where transport hubs dominate and life revolves around commerce and executive living.
Most of the new building in the UK is designed by 50 per cent of the available gene pool. What a waste. I wish Lauren the best of luck.