Françoise-Hélène Jourda was a militant architect. She was one of the first to call for the integration of ecology in architecture, also one claiming that architects have a social responsibility to stand for.
At a time when architecture is a lackey-service to real-estate companies and in the verge of becoming a secondary discipline in the face of world urbanization, Jourda’s call seemed all the most necessary. Jourda pleaded for a more economical building process, reducing the use of resources and of energy.
” Françoise-Hélène Jourda’s leitmotiv for more than twenty years has been an environmental approach in the broadest sense of the term, and she has been constructing buildings without respecting conventions and stylistic preconceptions. “I am now a very happy woman”, she said as the Chairwoman of architecture and sustainable development at Vienna Technical University, “The subjects that I have been fighting for have finally become respectable”. Françoise-Hélène Jourda…
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