Skip to main content

Finding Ella Briggs

A Pioneer Without Borders

Five photos are spread out on a horizontal surface made of tissue paper.
Ella Briggs looks different ages in these photos.
Ella Briggs, from young to legendary. © Photo: Architekturzentrum Wien, Collection

On Disappearance and Rediscovery: How an international team is rediscovering the forgotten life and work of a female architect.

Ella Briggs (1880 – 1977) was the first woman to join the Zentralvereinigung der Architekten Österreichs (Austrian architects’ association). Her work ranges from social housing and interior design, to photography and journalism. The research findings from “Finding Ella Briggs“ are now available in book form and, drawing on new archival discoveries, reconstruct the life of a multidisciplinary pioneer who lived and worked in Vienna, Berlin, New York and London.

The evening sheds light not only on this transnational body of work, but also on the innovative practice of collective biographical research and the establishment of an Ella Briggs archive. Discover how modern historiography is finally granting a forgotten pioneer her rightful place.

With:

Monika Platzer and Katrin Stingl, Az W Collection

Britta Schinzel, donor

Elana Shapira and Despina Stratigakos, editors of Finding Ella Briggs

Architekturzentrum Wien

Gray 3D site plan of the Museumsquartier Wien with the area marked in red at the location of the Architekturzentrum Wien
© MuseumsQuartier Wien