Dr Cláudia de Souza Libânio will be presenting at the SAH 79th International Conference in Mexico City.

Participatory Practices Led by Women in Architectural Education

Participatory practices have emerged as a representative field of activity for women architects who work toward building more inclusive, just, and sustainable societies. In fields historically dominated by men, such as architecture, the growing presence of women has been reshaping professional practices through other ways of doing and projecting. This research explores the professional practices of women architects engaged in collaborative processes, highlighting how themes such as inclusion, accessibility, and socio-environmental demands are articulated within participatory projects.

An exploratory approach was adopted, combining a literature review with in-depth interviews. A semi-structured protocol guided the interviews, which were transcribed, organised, and performed by a thematic analysis. Eight women architects were interviewed, selected based on their professional profiles, life trajectories, and projects developed. Attempts were made to include women with diverse backgrounds, representing five different nationalities, aiming to ensure diversity and inclusion of multiple actors and contexts. Accordingly, participatory practices based on the narratives of diverse women were explored and discussed, thereby contributing to the pluralisation of invisible voices that have historically shaped discourses and practices in the fields of architecture.

The findings were categorised into thematic axes that reveal tensions between collaborative practice and disciplinary canons of architecture, emphasising the construction of a feminist pedagogy grounded in active listening, negotiation, empathy, and participatory practices. The research also identified the impacts of these practices on professional education and the insertion of the participants in the field, including gender-related challenges.

This study demonstrates that participatory practices led by women can act to propose alternative forms of knowledge production, critical thinking, studio dynamics, collaboration, and authorship. These findings contribute to rethinking the development of pedagogical experiments and non-systematic approaches that broaden architectural education and foster social justice.

https://www.sah.org/2026