Like so many things, it started on social media. Back in March, celebrity architect Bjarke Ingels posted a picture of his firm’s 12 partners – 11 men and one woman. Soon after, Ingels was facing accusations of sexism in his firm from commenters on Instagram.
“This is a photo of me and my dear friends and partners who I love, admire and respect, and who I have collaborated with to create our company over the last 16 years. To my surprise this photo has turned out to be deeply offensive to a lot of people who appear to believe that we have chosen each other based on factors as utterly indifferent as gender and race, rather than our shared passion, talent, skill, intelligence, heart and soul. Seriously?” Ingels responded.
Dezeen caught up with Ingels to follow up with him on the issue.
“Being a white male makes anything I say sort of misquoted and twisted. Anything that I say about this will be misinterpreted,” Ingels said. “I was shocked at the bullshit people were writing.”
The conversation about women in architecture has heated up of late. Data from Architectural Review’s Women in Architecture Survey shows that one in five women worldwide would not encourage a woman to start a career in architecture. The gender imbalance in the field is notorious, with women representing only 18 percent of licensed practitioners in the U.S., according to the L.A. Times.
But Ingels insists that his firm is not part of the problem.
“If I was misogynist would I hire a woman as my CEO? Probably not,” he said. “I grew up in Denmark for crying out loud. Denmark is probably one of the places where equality is actually fully achieved. Our political system is practically a matriarchy.”
Read our full profile of Ingels here.
[Dezeen] —Christopher Cameron