Artist and OMA co-founder Madelon Vriesendorp is "architecture's lost heroine"

2019-04-08T15:35:00-04:00

“For us, [Vriesendorp] has always been a central figure in the production of architectural ideas and discourse,” says Eva Franch i Gilabert, the director of the AA. Between 1982 and 1992, Vriesendorp taught at the AA. In 2015, the school hosted her 70th birthday. “She is a seminal voice of the institution,” Franch says. “She is all about opening up people’s imagination, regardless of age, disciplinary labels or expertise.”

When accepting the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize that recognizes women who have made significant contributions to architecture, the 2018 winner Madelon Vriesendorp shared of having to defend her legacy. Like many women in the profession, the artist and co-founder of OMA has been written out of the script even having one of her most famous paintings Flagrant Délit, which shows two skyscrapers in bed together, often associated with her husband Rem Koolhaas.

Vriesendorp almost didn't accept The Architectural Review's award she tells Nell Card of the Guardian. “I was going to refuse it. I thought: I didn’t do anything for architecture. But then I thought I could make it a bit political: I could make an argument for women who haven’t been recognized.”

The Dutch artist has been hesitant about her role in the field, having spent most of her career sidelined by the male architects of OMA. But, Vriesendorp is now becoming the headliner, with numerous honors and dedicated retrospectives that br...

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Artist and OMA co-founder Madelon Vriesendorp is "architecture's lost heroine"