The French designer on gender and the future of the field French architect Odile Decq is used to hearing the word ?no.? Heeding it, however, is not her specialty.
Growing up in the small town of Laval in western France, the award-winning architect first studied art history in Rennes, the capital of Brittany. There, she fell in with a group of young architecture students and decided to switch majors.

Her father?s response to her architectural ambitions"
?He told me ?This is not a profession for women,?? Decq recalls during an interview in her studio in Paris?s 4th arrondissement.
Decq protested, and in response her father invited a male architect to lunch with the family to discuss his daughter?s ambitions. At one point, the architect asked why she wanted to choose this career. ?I want to build a theater,? Decq responded. Then, she recalls, ?he turned to my parents and said ?Oh, you know, it?s good that now young ladies will study architecture because they will be very good in our office at designing kitchens and cupboards.??
For Decq, a female architect?s place was not in the kitchen?far from it. Often described as a rebel or radical, she has become one of the most successful women in the field and serves as a role model to many others.
Although she remains less-known in the U.S. than in Europe, Decq?s accolades are numerous. In 1996, she received the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennial. More recently, in 2016, she won The Architectural Review?s...