Episode 07: Jane Drew
Jane Drew began the first all woman architecture firm in London. She was born on March 24, 1911, in England. She graduated from the AA School of Architecture in 1934. Architecture firms rejected her simply because she was a woman. This motivated her to start an all woman architecture firm in 1939. The architecture practice was named “Jane B Drew”. From 1944 to 1946 she was Assistant Town-Planning Adviser to the resident minister for the British colonies in Africa. She got paid £100 less than everyone else just because she was a woman. Jane and her husband, Max Fry, formed the firm Fry, Drew, and Partners focusing on large-scale planning for tropical countries. That was the end of the all woman firm, but it's all right. Indian Prime Minister Nehru invited her firm to lead the design of the city Chandigarh. Yet, she was too busy to run the project and she recommend Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier accepted, he along with Jane, Max, Pierre Jeanneret, and a big team of Indian architects worked on Chandigarh for years. Other notable works from Jane include: The University of Ibadan, Nigeria, the School for the Deaf, London, and the Open University England, and the Torbay Hospital and Nurses Residence in England in the 1970s. She stopped practicing in the late 1970s, but kept traveling and lecturing. She passed away on 1996.
Publications
Jane Drew and John Heartfield, Kitchen Planning: a brochure of new plans and suggestions for labour saving kitchens. London: The Gas Industry, 1945.
J. B. Drew and E. Maxwell Fry, Village Housing in the Tropics: with special reference to West Africa, In collaboration with Harry L. Ford. London: Lund Humphries, 1947.
E. Maxwell Fry and Jane B. Drew, Chandigarh and Planning Development in India, London: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, No.4948, 1 April 1955, Vol.CIII, pages 315–333. I. The Plan, by E. Maxwell Fry, II. Housing, by Jane B. Drew.
E. Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zones. New York: Reinhold, 1964.
Jane Drew, Ann Tyng, Gae Aulenti, Denise Scott Brown, Monica Pidgeon, Anna Bofil, Indira Rai, Bola Sobande, Ellen Perry Berkeley, Eulie Chowdhuri and others. The crisis of Identity in Architecture – Report of the proceedings of the International Congress of Women Architects. Ramsar, Iran, 1976.
Media
Check out this lecture Jane gave regarding Chandigarh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QasRHHhjPdM&feature=emb_imp_woyt
Caryatid: Alda Ly
Alda Ly is the owner of Alda Ly Architecture and Design in New York City. She also co-founded Designer’s Assembly which supports young architects who aspire to ethical creatively fulfilling entrepreneurship. Alda’s project list includes retail, healthcare, media labs, cultural spaces, and co-working office spaces for women. Her work has been featured nationally and internationally in various publications. She is an alumni of UC Berkeley and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
Check out article about her in Madame Architect: https://www.madamearchitect.org/interviews/2018/6/11/without-precedent-alda-ly-on-new-motherhood-starting-a-firm-and
References
“Drew, Jane (1911–1996) | Encyclopedia.Com.” Encyclopedia.Com, www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/drew-jane-1911-1996. Accessed 27 May 2020.
Gamolina, Julia. “Without Precedent: Alda Ly on Starting a Firm, Becoming a Mom, and Doing What’s Never Been Done.” Madame Architect, 21 June 2018, www.madamearchitect.org/interviews/2018/6/11/without-precedent-alda-ly-on-new-motherhood-starting-a-firm-and.
Green, Emily. “The Independent.” The Independent, 7 Mar. 1990, chanceofrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/jane-drew-interview.htm.
Jackson, Ian. “Jane Drew (1911-1996).” Architectural Review, 4 July 2017, www.architectural-review.com/essays/reputations/jane-drew-1911-1996/8665224.article.
Morais, Betsy. “‘The Wing:’ A Feminist Office, Designed by a Woman.” The Atlantic, 12 Apr. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/04/an-architect-for-the-feminist-moment/557516.
Narro, Itziar. “Did You Know There Was One More Architect (a Woman) Who Built Chandigarh Together with Le Corbusier?” Architectural Digest India, 5 July 2020, www.architecturaldigest.in/content/know-everything-about-jane-drew-the-architect-who-built-chandigarh-together-with-le-corbusier/#s-cust0.
Raskin, Laura. “Meet the Designers Behind The Wing, the Coworking Space For Women.” Metropolis, 7 Aug. 2019, www.metropolismag.com/interiors/workplace-interiors/the-wing-chiara-de-rege-alda-ly.
Szacka, Léa-Catherine. “Just What Is It That Made AA’s Women so Different, so Appealing?” Domus, 5 Dec. 2017, www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2017/11/15/just-what-is-it-that-made-aas-women-so-different-so-appealing.html.
Venturi, Robert. “Robert Venturi 1991 Laureate Acceptance Speech.” The Pritzker Architecture Prize 1991, 1991, www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/1991_Acceptance_Speech.pdf.
Wikipedia contributors. “Jane Drew.” Wikipedia, 1 July 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Drew.
Images (in order of appearance):
RIBA Library Photographs Collection. University College, Ibadan: Residential College 3 dining hall (Sultan Bello Hall). Livin Spaces. A Nenayo Media Company © Livin Spaces 2020. 20 Jan. 2017. www.livinspaces.net/interviews-and-articles/fry-drew-and-partnersthe-british-architects-behind-the-university-of-ibadan-campus/
Iain Jackson. Chandigarh Art Gallery. ArchIpel. 26 Nov. 2013. archipelvzw.be/en/agenda/458/maxwell-fry-jane-drew-in-chandigarh
Sergio Kreiman. Conjunto Habitacional en Chandigarh. Un Dia Una Arquitecta. 06 May 2015. undiaunaarquitecta.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/jane-drew-1911-1996/
Tripti Joshi. Unnamed. Alchetron. 03 Apr. 2018. chameleon-circle-gmmg.squarespace.com/config/pages/5e43442d685c425c5d4940c6
Sergio Kreiman. Fry, Drew and Partners, Independence Arch, Accra (Ghana). Un Dia Una Arquitecta. 06 May 2015. undiaunaarquitecta.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/jane-drew-1911-199
Iain Jackson, Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast, Ghana (1958) Fry, Drew and Partners. The Architectural Review. Tropical Modernism: Fry and Drew’s African Experiment. 4 Jul 2014 https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/tropical-modernism-fry-and-drews-african-experiment
