Simone Guillissen-Hoa

As part of an extensive program on feminism, the museum civa.brussels offers the first monographic exhibition on Simone Guillissen-Hoa (1916–1996). The Chinese-born Belgian architect was one of the first women to establish an architecture firm in Belgium. Her career and personal life have consistently challenged the limits imposed by social conventions, gender norms, religious dogma and racial prejudices.

Her life spanned the major events of the twentieth century, from the early onset of the Chinese Revolution to the resistance in occupied Belgium and through postwar reconstruction. In the 1950s, she was a member of the Soroptimist Association, a women’s-rights advocacy organization, and in the 1970s, she became involved in the creation of the International Union of Women Architects. The exhibition both records her architectural projects and, through a wide array of archival materials, presents her reflections on architecture, her battles and more broadly, her professional and private life.

Exhibition view, civa.brussels, 2024 © Filip Dujardin

Projected in the middle of the exhibition room is the film “Simone” (2024) by Eva Giolo and Aglaia Konrad. The documentation shows not only the condition of the buildings designed by Guillissen-Hoa but also focuses on adaptations done until the present day.