What do personal archives tell us when the official archives are silent?
Little is known about women architects in Lisbon, and even less about those who studied the profession between the 1940s and 1980s. Gaps in existing history, what happens if we want to rewrite it? We go straight to them to realize the diversity of stories in history. We look at personal archives, each one unique. Lines, drawings, poems: each archive is different for these women in Lisbon architecture.

The archives have lives of their own. They are experiences encapsulated by the affection and gaze of each one of them. They are active exercises in memory; they were made regardless of whether anyone else would see them. They kept what they thought was important about their profession, but are we just our work? Do we experience our profession without imprinting the other aspects of our lives? It’s curious to see that among the plans and models, there are also photos and paintings that portray their feelings at the time.