Exploring Feminism in Architecture: María Novas Joins UB as Stratigakos Fellow

This year, María Novas Ferradás has been selected as the 2025-26 Despina Stratigakos Fellow. Novas holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from Universidad de Sevilla and has spent more than a decade exploring the interdisciplinary intersections of architecture, urban design, and feminism with a particular focus on comprehending the social and political theory and history that shapes the built environment. Her book based on her post-master thesis in gender studies, “Arquitectura y género: una introducción posible” was honored at the 16^th Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial in the category of Research and Dissemination.

She currently works as a senior lecturer and researcher at the Chair of the History and Theory of Urban Design at the ETH Zürich, and as the academic editor of the gta papers, the scientific journal of the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) at the same institution.

Novas’ passion for this subject began during her undergraduate studies, when she and her fellow female classmates found themselves shocked by the glaring lack of female representation in their history, theory, and design courses. “Women made up half of the student corps, and during five years of studies, I think we heard the name of three female architects in our history and theory courses,” she recalled. “We thought, ‘what’s going on here?’ Because we knew there were women working in the field.”

Determined to uncover some of these missing narratives and connect with like-minded individuals, in 2012 Novas and her friend Sofía Paleo started a blog and began doing their own independent research. It was during that time that they first encountered Stratigakos’ work. “We were happy to discover that there were different people around the world, like Despina, having similar concerns that we were having and doing something about it,” Novas shared.

As Novas advanced in her career, earning two master’s degrees and her Ph.D. and teaching at TU Delft in the Netherlands, she found herself transitioning from inquisitive student to the kind of educator she had once wished for. “Doing research on feminism, architecture, and urban design, we are limited,” she expressed. “We don’t have all the sources that we should. It’s complicated because we’re looking into the past and many of the materials have been destroyed or were appropriated by others. Looking prior to the first half of the 20^th century, we will never know the exact history. It’s sad to realize that, but that also prompted my imagination with the upcoming UB engagement—I want to create awareness about that unsolvable lack.”

Through the Stratigakos Fellowship at UB, Novas will work to create that awareness through a workshop that will begin with historical and theoretical foundations, helping students to understand the cultural, political, and social forces that have shaped architectural silences. From there, the students will engage in a fictocritical exercise: imagining fictional alternative futures and rewriting the architectural history they wish they had learned through their studies.

“They can activate their imaginations to create that story, which is likely an impossible story—though maybe it’s happened and we just don’t know about it,” Novas explained. The workshop will be conducted primarily online with a one-week intensive where the students will travel to Zurich, Switzerland to focus on this creative work.

The results of the students’ work will also inform Novas’ own research throughout the fellowship, potentially culminating in a lecture on April 21st,  explaining the teaching experience and results. “I think it will be important for other people to learn about what we’ve done here,” she emphasized.

Novas sees this work as part of a growing and welcome global movement. “The history of women, architecture, and urbanism has exploded worldwide,” Novas noted. “It can no longer be denied that this is a crucial issue in architectural history and theory, and it’s because of people like Despina pushing for progress, often in unfavorable contexts.”

One of Novas’ most meaningful discoveries during her own research was Augustine (“Guus”) Schreuder-Gratama, a Dutch woman whose contributions to architecture were hidden. Though she studied architecture in the early decades of the 20th century, she never graduated, instead marrying and having children according to the societal expectations of the time. Yet her passion for architecture endured, evident in her work with the Dutch Housewives Association, which advised the Ministry of Reconstruction following World War II reconstruction.

Recently, Novas worked with Schreuder-Gratama’s granddaughter and her colleague, Lidewij Tummers, to put to rest the question of whether she ever “built anything”—which some consider necessary in order to call yourself an architect. While Schreuder-Gratama’s family claimed that she had designed and built her own house, the archived records were signed by a local male engineer. But as Novas pointed out, “We suspected she might have done the work, but it had to be proven through documents.” When Schreuder-Gratama’s granddaughter found proof that the family was correct, it was not through architectural plans but, rather, a poem written for her 50th wedding anniversary by her daughter-in-law, which referred to “the house that Guus built based on her own design.”

“She’s an architect who not only advised, but also designed and built,” Novas concluded. “And this private document, impossible to find in an architectural archive, is the material that finally proves it.” Until now. That poem now lives on as part of the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Planning.

Through the Stratigakos Fellowship, Novas will continue to explore hidden stories like Schreuder-Gratama’s—stories that challenge the biases of archival history and inspire a more inclusive architectural future—as well as share them with the next generation of architects. As Novas said, “We cannot fully trust the materials we have preserved in archives because they might be shaped by the biases of a discriminatory past. We need to be aware of gender, racial, and class discrimination through history in order to tell the history accurately. Otherwise, we will be missing more than half the picture.”