Defiantly Modern: The Unconventional Life and Work of Ella Briggs

Despina Stratigakos, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University at Buffalo

Ella Briggs was a pioneering Viennese architect, designer, and writer whose influential practice across Vienna, New York, Berlin, and London actively shaped global perspectives on modern living. She trained with members of the Vienna Secession, designed modernist housing for the masses in Austria, was jailed as a suspected spy in Mussolini’s Italy, and thrived in Weimar Germany before suffering persecution under the Nazis and fleeing to London where she contributed to England’s postwar reconstruction. Despite a long and prolific career, her name faded into obscurity. The newly published biography, Finding Ella Briggs, presents previously unpublished research from archives around the world and restores Briggs’s groundbreaking legacy and rightful place in the history of modernist design.

Neue Galerie New York is delighted to participate in the celebration of Archtober, New York City’s Architecture and Design Month. This annual festival of architecture activities, programs and exhibitions takes place each October.

This event is made possible in part by the generous support of Princeton University Press.

About the Speaker

Despina Stratigakos is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University at Buffalo. Her work bridges academic scholarship and cultural intervention, and investigates how power, politics, and diversity intersect with design. In 2011, she partnered with Mattel to launch Architect Barbie to spark global conversations about gender equity in the field. Her 2016 book, Where Are the Women Architects?, served as a powerful indictment of a historically male-dominated profession. Most recently, her co-authored biography, Finding Ella Briggs, was named a Financial Times Best Book of the Year.

LEARN MORE

Finding Ella Briggs: The Life and Work of an Unconventional Architect
Edited by Despina Stratigakos and Elana Shapira

Where Are the Women Architects?
By Despina Stratigakos