Cersaie 2013: the female gaze in architecture

The three internationally acclaimed architects Carla Juaçaba (Brazil), Izaskun Chinchilla (Spain) and Sarah Robinson (USA) will take part in Cersaie 2013 at a conference moderated by US architect Michael P. Johnson to be held in the Bologna exhibition centre on 27 September. The Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishing Exhibition will thus pay tribute to female creativity, embracing design, research and innovation.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1976, Carla Juaçaba started up her own practice in 2000. In 2013 she won the inaugural international ArcVision Women and Architecture prize. Her practice is currently involved in public and private projects for housing and cultural programmes. She has a special interest in the poetry and expressive potential of tectonics and explores the concept of place in terms of cultural continuity and phenomenological perception. She has collaborated with architect Gisela Magalhaesper on a project on Brazilian indigenous arts and historic museums and with architect Mario Fraga on the Casa Atelier project.

Since graduating in architecture in Madrid in 2001, Izaskun Chinchilla has gained extensive teaching experience at faculties in London, Paris, Geneva and Madrid. Today she combines her design work with a research project exploring the social and aesthetic impact of environmentally-focused technical solutions. As an architect she argues for the importance of a commitment to innovation. Her projects are multidisciplinary exercises in which architecture combines with ecology, sociology and science, transcending stylistic distinctions and addressing the complexity of real life in the contemporary world.

A native of Minnesota, Sarah Robinson studied philosophy in Switzerland and the United States, then graduated in drawing and painting at the Art Student's League in New York before completing her training in architecture in Arizona and Wisconsin. She worked with a number of architects, then started up her own practice in 2000. Today she lives and works in California and is chair of the Board of Trustees of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Her projects explore the transparency of modern design while focusing on comfort and an intuitive and functional response to spatial needs.