‘Designs by a Woman for Women’: The House that Jean Built in 1932, by Morag Cross

Where are all the female architects? Scotland’s first professional woman architect was Edith Burnet Hughes, who established her practice in 1920. But eighty-seven years ago, another such, albeit amateur, designer was being promoted as an attraction at the second annual Scottish Ideal Home Exhibition. This was a publicity showcase for builders and home-furnishers, staged at the cavernous Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. The event, sponsored by the Daily Mail in October 1932, featured ‘The House that Jean Built’, so-called to emphasise its feminine contrast to the usual male-designed ‘houses that Jack built’.

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