PINKPRINT — International Conference on Women Architects

PinkPrint: Contributions and Challenges was the first international conference given over entirely to women architects, and the Odisha Chapter organised it. Three days in Bhubaneswar, more than seven hundred delegates, and a question the profession has been slow to ask itself out loud.

It was inaugurated by Smt. Usha Padhee, IAS, of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, who spoke on gender inclusion and on Odisha's own architectural inheritance. Among those present were Ar. Abhay Vinayak Purohit, President of the Council of Architecture; Ar. Vilas Vasant Avachat, President of the IIA; Ar. Saifuddin Ahmad, President of ARCASIA; and the heads of the architecture institutes of Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

The women who spoke came from New York, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangkok, Indonesia and the Philippines — among them Ar. Diana Kellogg, Ar. Nafisah Radin, Ar. Chryscentia Dilummini de Mel, Ar. Viluckshi Ravindran, Ar. (Dr.) Acharawan Chutarat, Ar. Primavera Desta, Ar. Leong Pek Liam and Ar. Rebecca Vanessa Rellosa.

Around the plenary sessions ran a Design Carnival competition between architecture students from colleges across Odisha, a meeting of the IIA's national office bearers, a Design Yatra, and a Material Expo open to the public. The first evening closed with Odissi.

The conference brought the chapter chairperson an IIA Presidential special recognition award.