International Women’s Day 2022
On Tuesday, 8 March, the world comes together for International Women’s Day 2022. This year theme’s is ‘breaking the bias”, where we aim for a world free from bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that is diverse, impartial, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.
International Women’s Day also allows us the time to celebrate inspiring and dynamic women from across the globe. Today, our founder Nilufer Danis celebrates five women who inspire her in design and horticulture.
Five Women Who Inspire Us
Martha Schwartz
Landscape Architect and Educator.
Image: Grand Canal Square by Martha Schwartz
Martha's background is art; therefore, she can transfer dull places into contemporary, artful, dynamic, and aesthetically beautiful places.
Martha Schwartz's urban public realm landscape projects successfully engage people, connect people to the place and each other and add enormous value for a better living in cities.
Her projects help to build community and prove that landscape is not just about planting green trees and shrubs, but it is a green infrastructure between buildings and nature to be managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services such as water purification, air quality, space for recreation and climate mitigation and adaptation.
We recommend watching this short video by Martha Schwartz to understand the importance of landscape design.
Website: https://msp.world/
Gertrude Jekyll
Horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist.
Image: Planting Design by Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude was a paint artist, but she couldn’t continue her career due to issues with her eyes. Her path then took her to begin a career as a garden designer. Gertrude used the landscape as her canvas and flowers as a colour pigment. She painted the landscape and gardens beautifully with flowers, colours and texture making them look like actual paintings.
We have been inspired by her artistic approach and confidence in using colour in planting design which we believe is one of our core design skills.
In good design, all materials and form, texture and colour of trees and plants sing a song together in the same tune- like a beautiful orchestra in a suitable space. This makes the design strong.
Website: https://gertrudejekyll.co.uk/
Edwina von Gal
Landscape Designer
Designed by Edwina von Gal
We are inspired by Edwina’s modern, minimal, sustainable and naturalistic style as her design approach reminds us of Isamu Noguchi. She designed the park for Panama’s Biomuseo with Frank Gehry. Her approach emphasises sustainability, natural landscapes, and the use of native species.
In 2008 she founded the Azuero Earth Project in Panama to promote chemical-free reforestation with native trees on the Azuero Peninsula. In 2013 she founded the Perfect Earth Project to promote chemical-free, non-agricultural land management in the US and is its current president.
Maya Lin
Designer and Sculptor
Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Maya Lin
Linn beautifully connects art and the environment, and she is also an environmentalist. Linn has designed numerous memorials, public and private buildings, landscapes, and sculptures. She achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. She was only 21 years old.
According to Lin, she draws inspiration from the architecture of nature but believes that nothing she creates can match its beauty.
Website: https://www.mayalinstudio.com
Seyhan Ozdemir
Founding partner of Autoban, Architect and Interior Designer
Seyhan and her business partner, Sefer, run a very successful international firm based in Istanbul and London. They use common materials in uncommon ways, pushing materials to reveal their full potential, creating spaces within spaces and working in layers to create new stories and offer inspiring experiences to the people who interact with their designs. Their overall design approach is authentic, warm and evocative in a contemporary setting.
Website: https://www.autoban.com/
Our Commitment To #BreakingTheBias
We strive every day to inspire women of all backgrounds to build careers within landscape architecture and garden design.
We will continue to champion the work of new, upcoming and established women and help pave the way for an equal world.
We will continue to call out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping within our industry and beyond.
We will focus on ensuring everyone we work with (and for) feels they are represented and belong.
Happy International Women's Day!