The Shard – Roma Agrawal MBE
Roma Agrawal is an Indian-British-American chartered structural engineer based in London. She loves making and breaking things and played with Lego as a child, which led her to love engineering! She spent six years working on the tallest building in Western Europe, the Shard.
London Aquatic Centre – Zaha Hadid
Zaha Mohammad Hadid is an award-winning Iraqi-British architect. During her career, she taught architecture at many prestigious universities. Here, she gained a reputation among her students for her colourful and radical designs.
The London Eye – Julia Barfield
Julia Barfield is a British architect and director. She created the London Eye with her husband. Julia loves vernacular architecture and geometry. She also loves the way nature “designs and organizes itself so efficiently”. She stays involved in architecture projects like culture, education, transportation, sports, leisure, and master planning.
The best thing about the Eye is the journey. It’s not like the Eiffel tower, where you get in a dark lift and come out on to a platform at the top. The trip round is as important as the view.
Julia Barfield.
The Eiffel Tower – Sophie Germain
Sophie was a French mathematician studying number theory and elasticity. Her work on elasticity is important to the field of mathematics and vital in the construction of the Eiffel Tower! However, her name was not inscribed on the tower.
Okay, so Sophie isn’t the designer of the Eiffel Tower. But she is an integral part of the design and development, so she’s worth mentioning here. Read more on Sophie’s contribution to the Eiffel Tower here >>
Aqua Tower – Jeanne Gang
Jeanne Gang is an American architect and the founder and leader of Studio Gang. Her approach has distinguished her as a leading architect of her generation. Inspired by ecological systems, she connects people, their communities and the environment. Jeanne’s design process emphasizes research, experimentation and collaboration.
Aqua was awarded Skyscraper of the Year in 2009. Then, it was shortlisted in 2010 for the biennial International Highrise Award. The skyscraper is currently the world’s tallest building designed by a woman.
New Museum of Contemporary Art – Kazuyo Sejima
Kazuyo is a Japanese architect. What sets her designs apart are her modernist elements, shiny surfaces and use of cubes. In 2010, Sejima was the second woman to receive the Pritzker Prize.
The Brooklyn Bridge – Emily Roebling
Emily was an engineer who contributed to the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband fell ill. She managed, liaised and campaigned between city officials and workers. She saw the world’s first steel-wire suspension bridge to completion and would later become the first person to cross the bridge, too.
