'COMPLIMENTS TO OUR BRAVE ARCHITECT!'

Margaret Staal-Kropholler (1891-1966) is regarded as the first woman architect in the Netherlands. She completed her first work as an unqualified architect in 1917. Less well known is that Grada Wolffensperger (1887-1965) became the first woman to complete the univer-sity course in architecture at the Technische Hogeschool in Delft that same year. A further twenty women had completed their architectural training by 1945.

Why and how did these women become architects at a time when women were expected to raise a family and take care of a house-hold? What was their education like? And was it actually possible for them to practise a profession so dominated by men?.

Compliments to our brave architect! describes the emergence of women architects. Including 21 biographies, the book forms an indispensable reference work on a neglected aspect of Dutch architectural history.