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Nachgefragt with Elke Duda: "The effort was immense"

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The Berlin network of female planners n-ails e.V. in cooperation with the Berlin Chamber of Architects planned to bring the first festival on women in architecture, WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE, to Berlin this summer - due to Corona it had to be postponed to 2021. Elke Duda from n-ails was in consultation with us last year. We want to know from her: What did she get out of the consultation? How is she financing her project now?

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: Hello Elke. Please introduce yourself. Who are you, what do you do?

Elke Duda: I am Elke Duda, architect, and co-founder of the association n-ails e.V., a network of female architects, planners, engineers and other professions related to construction and architecture. For a long time, I was active in professional politics in the Chamber of Architects, where I chaired the gender working group for six years. The topic "women in architecture" became more and more present in the course of my professional life.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: You are planning the first festival for women in architecture. Due to Corona, it has now had to be postponed until 2021. How did it come about? How did you start organizing the festival?

Elke Duda: At n-ails, we have been dealing with the "building site equality" for 15 years now. We want to promote a building culture based on parity. We are concerned with equal wages, equal presence in public discourse, in exhibitions and in leadership positions. In general, we want to strengthen the reputation of female planners and help break down prejudices in this male-dominated field. After all, you first have to get this off your chest: Of the world's 100 most successful architectural firms, only three are headed by women alone. In Germany, there are only ten percent women in the management of architecture firms, but 58 percent of architecture students are female. That's the one very basic thing. Then: in 2018, there was a "Women Architects Exhibition" at the Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, where it was easy to see how little the achievements of women in this field were and are appreciated. Finally, as part of the program accompanying the exhibition, we were able to host a symposium with European women architects. That was our first major nationwide publicity campaign and ultimately the starting signal for the festival. Our aim with the festival is to reach out to various actors in the field of building culture in Berlin. Among others, we were able to win the Berlin Chamber of Architects and the Association of German Architects for our cause.

In the beginning, everything was complicated: In Berlin, there is no separate funding program for architects in the field of culture. But in the end we found what we were looking for 

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: You came to us for consulting in 2019 - first at the Kulturförderpunkt, then at Kreativwirtschaftsberatung. What questions did you come with? What did you take away? 

Elke Duda: I had a conversation with Andrzej at the very beginning. However, it quickly became clear that things were complicated: Berlin does not have a separate funding program for architects in the field of culture; apparently architecture is not part of culture in the funding landscape. Architectural projects can officially apply for the Capital City Culture Fund (Hauptstadtkulturfonds), but in fact no project in the field of architecture has ever been funded in this program. That was sobering for me at first. Andrzej then suggested the Lotto Foundation to me, and we found what we were looking for. But that was not enough financially. That's why we continued our research. With success: Today, the Chamber of Architects as a cooperation partner and also the Berlin Senate contribute to the financing of the festival. Our network n-ails also contributes a large amount of voluntary work - both organizationally and in terms of content. We are currently in talks with sponsors, the financing is a motley mix.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: After you were at Kulturförderpunkt, you joined Kreativwirtschaftsberatung. Why another consultation? What difficulties did you face? And could we help you?

Elke Duda: That was about something else, about my own project. I was thinking about how I could make the architecture of women in Berlin more visible, for example through guided tours and publications. That didn't necessarily have anything to do with the festival, but it indirectly benefited it. And yes, the consultation was helpful because it also made me aware of the limits of my building culture activities in terms of funding channels in Berlin. 

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: If you look back at the whole planning process: What were the difficulties? What hurdles did you have to overcome? 

Elke Duda: We didn't realize the scope of the whole endeavor. It takes a lot of people who are willing to get involved. The most difficult thing was to get the Chamber of Architects on board. That took half a year, but then we convinced them. Today they are a cooperation partner and support the festival financially. The money and the standing of the Chamber of Architects have really helped us. But also the other architects' associations were surprisingly open after they became aware of how underrepresented women are among them. The MeToo debate certainly played into our hands; ten years ago, a festival like ours would probably have been unthinkable. To sum up, it doesn't just take vision and courage. It also needs financially strong cooperation partners and sponsors from sectors close to the industry, which result in a win-win situation; many project partners - players in building culture - who support the project and participate. The effort was immense, but it was worth it.

It doesn't just take vision and courage. It also needs financially strong cooperation partners and sponsors from sectors close to the industry, resulting in a win-win situation

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: If you were to give a tip to others who are planning a similar project, what are the mistakes to avoid? 

Elke Duda: You must not get bogged down, structured planning is important. And fees must not be allowed to fall by the wayside. Creative work is also work that must be paid for. No project can be realized on the basis of visions alone.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: Elke, what's next? What will you be doing in 10 years? 

Elke Duda: First of all, we all have to get through the Corona crisis well. Then we will continue to work on making next year's WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE BERLIN Festival a success. Information about this can be found on our website. And in 10 years at the latest, I would like to be happy that we finally have parity in building culture in Germany.

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