Competitions, creative collaborations and opportunities for small businesses were the theme of this month’s Making Space for Women event.

We were delighted to welcome Melissa Woolford, founder and director of the Museum of Architecture, as our guest speaker. Melissa spoke about her own career journey and her work exploring the power of collaboration between architecture and other sectors – including branding, neuroscience and galleries.

Melissa also spoke about the proposed Treehouses at Kew exhibition and the competition process run by the MoA, which gave opportunities for small practices to participate. Inclusion was a core theme to the project – not only in the accessibility of the selected designs, but also in the selection process itself.

Making Space for Women is co-hosted by WeAreWaterloo, Build Studios and Build Workspace. It was established as a forum for inspiring discussion and informal networking for women working in the built environment.

This year, Making Space for Women, is promoting mentoring opportunities for younger colleagues, whose ability to network at an early stage of their career may have been impacted by the pandemic and the increase in home-working. It was great to see established members of the group introduce their colleagues to us all.