This roundtable brings together architects, curators, and historians to reflect on the legacy of architect Lilly Reich (1885–1947) and on the broader issues her career raises regarding authorship, visibility, and historical recognition in architecture.
From her pioneering contributions to exhibition design to the modern interiors she created in tandem with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), Reich’s career exemplifies the mechanisms of structural omission that have shaped architectural history. Through a reflection on her life and her collaboration with Mies, the discussion will explore how hegemonic narratives are constructed, how value is assigned to architectural work, and how the labor underpinning design can be rendered (in)visible.
The participants include Andres Lepik, Director of the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Munich (Architekturmuseum der TUM); Guillermo Zuaznabar, Chief Curator at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (Bilbao Museoa); and Ula Iruretagoiena, professor at the School of Architecture in Donostia-San Sebastián (EHU-UPV). They will engage in dialogue with Laura Martínez de Guereñu, author of the forthcoming book Lilly Reich in Barcelona: The Materialization of a Neglected Authorship (Fundació Mies van der Rohe, 2025) and professor at IE University School of Architecture & Design (IEU).
This four-voice roundtable discussion is framed by the questions raised by the Mugak Biennial about what it means to "build" today—from material, historical, and political perspectives—and aims to show how research and exhibitions offer a new space for bringing to light forgotten authors in architecture, so that gender equality ceases to be a utopia.
This project addresses one of today’s most urgent political and urban issues—as highlighted by the theme of the Biennial—which may still seem utopian: gender equality.
Lilly Reich, whose name was eclipsed to elevate Mies as a singular genius, was reading Lewis Mumford—“the American who writes with perhaps the greatest intelligence” (letter to Eduard Ludwig, 3/7/1943)—while Germany was being bombed during World War II.
The intuition surrounding her role in the creation of works that cemented Mies as a key figure of modernity has been present among recent generations of architects, but lacking an intellectual framework, it remained “understood” yet unspoken for decades. As the book argues, this roundtable seeks to provide interpretive frameworks that can give shape to that intuition and help envision a future where gender equality in architecture is no longer an unattainable dream.