Design Changemakers 2021: Julia Gamolina Puts Female Architects in the Spotlight
The Apartment Therapy Design Changemakers Class of 2021 is made up of 24 of the most talented and dynamic people in the design world. We asked an assortment of last year’s Design Changemakers and Apartment Therapy staffers (and you!) to tell us who we needed to spotlight — see the rest of the list here.
Who: Julia Gamolina, founder and editor of Madame Architect, a digital magazine on female architects
Nominated by: Alda Ly, founder and principal of New York City-based firm Alda Ly Architecture
Where to follow her: Instagram
Why Gamolina is part of the Class of 2021: “I’m nominating Julia Gamolina, the founder and editor-in-chief of Madame Architect, an online publication that celebrates women in architecture and design. By interviewing over 150 female architects and designers, she has shined a spotlight on artists whose voices deserve to be heard — and isn’t that what being a changemaker is all about?” —Alda Ly, founder and principal of New York City-based firm Alda Ly Architecture
Like many other recent graduates, Julia Gamolina was looking for a mentor. While earning her five-year professional Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) degree at Cornell University, she always took advantage of the built-in system of mentorship by tapping her professors for advice. But once she was working in the real world after graduating in 2013, it wasn’t that easy. Some large architecture firms have those structures in place, but she was working for a boutique firm that didn’t. “I was new to a city and started from scratch building a system of support around me, so I proactively sought out women in the field [as] mentors,” says Gamolina, who’s based in New York City. “I also wanted to see what kind of career paths were out there that were possible because everyone we learned about in school was male and international architects, but I knew that my life probably wouldn’t quite be like theirs, nor did I want it to be in some ways.”
As Gamolina sought out mentors, she was inspired and invigorated by their stories and advice. “I knew I wasn’t the only young woman with the questions that I had that needed this kind of guidance, so I really wanted to share it,” she recalls. “Then a light bulb moment happened where I thought, I wanted to write more and be mentored more and share this information I’m getting. Why don’t I interview them and publish them somewhere?”
In May of 2018, Gamolina launched Madame Architect, a digital magazine focused on female architects. As founder and editor-in-chief, Gamolina has grown the volunteer staff to three editors as well as regular columnists. Like Gamolina, all of the editors have careers as architects. Gamolina is also the director of strategy at Trahan Architects, where she builds exposure for the firm.
Apartment Therapy: What do all of the women profiled in Madame Architect have in common?
Julia Gamolina: An entrepreneurial spirit. We tend to interview a lot of founders because there’s some really interesting stories there and how their firms started and choices they’ve had to make. Also, we try to interview people that bring something nontraditional into architecture. For example, we interviewed Kim Holden, who was one of the founders of a really prominent firm in New York and was with the firm for over 20 years and is now a doula.
AT: What platform are you trying to provide with Madame Architect?
JG: Definitely encouragement for anyone looking for a nontraditional path in the industry. You know that saying, that it’s no longer a career ladder, it’s a jungle gym? We’re trying to provide a lot of examples of what’s possible that’s never been done and encouraging people not to feel limited by the traditional path that they’re shown earlier on. The interviews are very holistic. We talk about parenthood, work-life integration. Interviews with architects tend just to focus on the final product, not so much about the person, not so much about their values or beliefs or the choices they made in life. In general, we’re trying to show what a modern professional’s life looks like and how the priorities are shifting. Architects aren’t really in the mainstream cultural zeitgeists in the same way that people in fashion can be, or other professionals featured in mainstream women’s magazines. I would love architects to gain more of a mainstream following and recognition and for the general public to better understand what design can bring to the world and to their daily lives. So that’s a mission of Madame Architect as well.
AT: What were your design inspirations growing up? What is your inspiration now?
JG: I’m originally from Siberia, Russia. I lived there until I was 8 and then moved to Toronto, then my family and I moved to Colorado Springs when I was 14. In between all that, we traveled a bunch, both in North America and Eastern Europe. I had done a foreign exchange for a summer in the South of France in high school. Being exposed to really different urban experiences and noticing how my contexts were different from an early age was a big thing. I’ve met so many people from all parts of the world and I’ve seen how they interact with where they live and how that informs their lifestyle. That is so, so, so, so fascinating to me. I think that’s a constant inspiration, both for Madame Architect and just getting to know people, and then also in my working professional practice and building an architecture company and then focusing on design.
AT: What’s your favorite project you worked on in 2020, and why?
JG: We launched a Next Generation column, which was interviewing students and recent graduates. Because of the pandemic, I was seeing the anxiety these students were feeling, especially upon graduation and there not being many jobs out there. I remember how anxious I was about that whole process. I graduated into a very healthy economy and industry in 2013. I wanted to do something to celebrate these students and their hard work and reassure them and make sure that they’re encouraging each other as peers, so we did a summer series of interviews. We’re planning on continuing it.
AT: Is there a specific piece of yours that you think is particularly indicative of who you are or what you’re trying to do?
JG: I wrote an op-ed in The Architect’s Newspaper after Madame Architect first launched and it was in response to a New York Times article that was titled, “Where Are All the Female Architects?” A month before that New York Times piece went live, I had given a presentation at Harvard on Madame Architect on all the women we had profiled already. By that point, it was something like 50 women. I said, “I never again want to hear anyone say they can’t name a single female architect or they can’t name more than five. There’s like 50 up here.” So, I wrote an op-ed and said: Stop asking that. We’re right here. You just need to write about us and look beyond those architect male names on the door. A lot of these firms that are run by men or have a male as the main image, the secret wings can sometimes be all of these women that people don’t know about.
AT: How do you think the past year will impact the design world moving forward?
JG: Public space is so important. When we first moved to Toronto, my family had very limited resources. We had to start from scratch. We couldn’t do a lot of things indoors, like go out to eat dinner or go to cultural performances or concerts. We took advantage of the city that we were in and went to all the parks and rollerbladed and biked around and took walks. We really, really took advantage of public space. That’s so crucial, especially for big cities like New York — providing quality public spaces for all kinds of people and all kinds of families to enjoy year-round.
AT: How has 2020 changed your perspective on or approach to your work?
JG: I’m pretty type-A and like to have things figured out and planned for. I’ve learned that you can’t force things and you can’t plan too much. You can have big-picture ideas and dreams, and don’t get frustrated if they’re not happening too soon. You have to be flexible with that. No matter what happens, you’re going to navigate it and you’re going to come out of it, and that’s a nice place to be after such a crazy year.
AT: Any big plans for 2021 or beyond you can share with us?
JG: Madame Architect is a digital publication, primarily written interview format, but I’d love to tell these same stories through different media, whether that be video or audio or physical printing. I’m hoping that will be the case. Then for 2021 personally, I really can’t wait to travel again. I was always a big city person. Whenever I traveled, it was for cultural exposure. Now, I want to go places like New Zealand and Chile and see the world as it is, and how we interact with the landscape.
Interview has been edited and condensed.