Best Women-Led Architecture Firms: 20 Practices to Know and Follow

Women-led architecture firms represent some of the most celebrated and innovative practices in the world today, from Pritzker Prize-winning studios to emerging offices redefining sustainable and community-centered design. Whether you are a job seeker targeting workplaces with strong female leadership, a client searching for design excellence, or simply someone interested in the current state of women in architecture, this guide profiles 20 outstanding practices and explains what makes each one worth following.

Why Women-Led Architecture Firms Matter

The numbers still tell a difficult story. According to ArchDaily’s 2025 analysis, only about 27 percent of licensed architects globally are women, and roughly 17 percent of firm principals or partners are female. Yet women now make up nearly half of architecture students in many countries. That gap between education and leadership is precisely what makes women-owned architecture firms so significant as models and as employers.

Firms led by women have won every major prize in the profession: the Pritzker, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, the AIA Gold Medal, and the Stirling Prize. Several of the best architecture firms in the world by any measure happen to be led by women. Understanding who they are, what they build, and where they hire is essential knowledge for anyone navigating the architecture industry today.

Global Women-Led Architecture Firms Setting the Standard

The following women-led landscape architecture firms and building architecture practices span continents and typologies. Each has produced work that has influenced the broader profession.

1. Studio Gang — Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Paris

Founded by Jeanne Gang in 1997, Studio Gang is one of the most consistently recognized women-owned architecture firms in the United States. Gang’s approach connects ecology, materiality, and social context across projects ranging from the 82-story Aqua Tower in Chicago to cultural facilities, boathouses, and educational buildings. The firm won Architizer’s A+Awards Firm of the Year and regularly features on lists of the best architecture firms in the world. Studio Gang maintains offices in multiple cities and regularly posts open roles on its careers page and on platforms like Archinect Jobs.

2. Grafton Architects — Dublin, Ireland

Founded in 1978 by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Grafton Architects won the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal (the first all-woman pair to receive it), and the 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize for Kingston University London – Town House. Their work is rooted in a deep reading of place, light, and the relationship between buildings and the public realm. Grafton is among the most decorated of all women-led architecture firms on any continent.

3. Zaha Hadid Architects — London, UK

Founded by the late Zaha Hadid in 1979, ZHA remains one of the most globally influential practices ever built by a woman. Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. The firm continues under leadership that includes a growing share of women in senior roles: in 2024, women accounted for 47 percent of ZHA’s upper middle salary quartile, up from 37 percent the year before. With major projects including the Guangzhou Opera House, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, and the London Aquatics Centre, ZHA is a defining presence among the best architectural firms in the world. Visit ZHA’s careers page for current openings.

4. Diller Scofidio + Renfro — New York, USA

Elizabeth Diller co-founded DS+R with Ricardo Scofidio in 1981. The firm is responsible for the High Line in New York, the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, and the MoMA expansion, among dozens of other landmark projects. Diller was the first architect of any gender named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People list and received the Wolf Prize for Architecture in 2022. As a women-led architecture firm with a research-driven, interdisciplinary approach, DS+R has influenced a generation of designers.

5. Alison Brooks Architects — London, UK

Founded by Alison Brooks, this London-based practice is the only architecture firm to have won three major RIBA Building Awards in different categories: the Stirling Prize, the House of the Year, and the Stephen Lawrence Prize. Brooks was named Dezeen’s Architect of the Year in 2020 and won the 2024 Architizer A+ Best Medium Firm award. Her work focuses on housing, civic projects, and the intersection of landscape and built form.

6. Brooks + Scarpa — Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale, USA

Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa lead this practice, which received the 2022 AIA Gold Medal — the American Institute of Architects’ highest honor. The firm is known for its socially conscious affordable housing work and sustainable residential design in California and Florida. As one of the top architectural firms for women in terms of both leadership and workplace culture, it consistently attracts applications from architects at all levels.

7. AL_A — London, UK

Founded by Amanda Levete, AL_A is known for large-scale cultural and public projects including the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Exhibition Road Quarter in London and the Centro Cultural de Belém extension in Lisbon. Levete won the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2016 for the V&A project and is among the most prominent voices in contemporary British architecture. AL_A regularly hires through Dezeen Jobs and its own website.

8. Frida Escobedo Taller de Arquitectura — Mexico City, Mexico

Frida Escobedo became the youngest architect to receive the Serpentine Pavilion commission in 2018, and the second solo woman ever to do so. Her studio is known for projects that work with local craft traditions, cultural institutions, and site-specific installations. In 2023, she was selected to design the expansion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a commission that placed her firmly among the best women architecture firms globally.

9. Farshid Moussavi Architecture — London, UK

Farshid Moussavi founded her London practice after her years at Foreign Office Architects. Known for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and a Victoria Beckham flagship store, Moussavi combines architectural research with built practice and maintains a visiting professorship at Harvard GSD. Her studio is small but internationally recognized as one of the most rigorous women-led landscape architecture and building practices operating today.

10. Selgascano — Madrid, Spain

Co-founded by Lucia Cano and José Selgas, Selgascano designed the 2015 Serpentine Pavilion and is celebrated for its playful use of translucent materials and immersive color. The firm’s approach to environmental integration and unconventional structural expression has earned it a devoted international following among architects interested in material innovation.

Women-Led Architecture Firms in the United States: Mid-Size and Emerging Practices

Beyond the globally recognized studios, a strong group of women-owned architecture firms operates across the United States with award-winning portfolios and active hiring programs. These are among the top architectural firms for women seeking workplaces with female leadership at every level.

11. SANAA — Tokyo, Japan (with significant US presence)

Co-founded by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA won the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Sejima’s work, including the New Museum in New York and the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, is defined by spatial lightness and material transparency. SANAA projects appear regularly in American academic and cultural contexts, and the firm’s approach has influenced a generation of architects trained at US institutions.

12. Maya Lin Studio — New York, USA

Maya Lin became internationally known when, as a Yale undergraduate, she won the competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1981. Her practice spans architecture, landscape architecture, and art. Lin’s approach to memory, landscape, and civic meaning makes her studio one of the most culturally significant women-led landscape architecture and public art practices in the world. Her work offers a compelling model for architects interested in integrating built and natural environments. Learn more at mayalin.com.

13. Odile Decq Architecture — Paris, France

Odile Decq is the founder of her eponymous Paris studio and the creator of the Phantom Restaurant inside the Paris Opéra Garnier. Her work merges biomorphic forms with bold structural expression and a sharp resistance to architectural convention. Decq also founded the École Spéciale d’Architecture’s graduate program OGLO and has long been an outspoken advocate for women and diversity in the profession.

14. Jeanne Gang / Studio Gang (Additional Projects)

Beyond the firm overview above, it’s worth noting that Studio Gang’s range extends from architecture into urban design and social research. Notable recent projects include the 56-story Solar Carve tower in Manhattan, the Richard Gilder Center for Science at the American Museum of Natural History, and a series of community-driven civic buildings. The firm publishes its own research through Studio Gang’s Reveal publication and actively hires at all levels. Check Studio Gang’s careers page for current roles.

15. Lina Ghotmeh Architecture — Paris, France

Lina Ghotmeh designed the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion, titled “À table,” and is known for her archaeological approach to site and material. Her studio works across scales from furniture to master plans, always with a focus on what she calls “archaeologies of the future” — building in ways that acknowledge environmental history and metabolic cycles. Ghotmeh’s rising international profile makes her studio increasingly sought-after by architects wanting to work with a women-led practice at the forefront of sustainable thinking.

16. Denise Scott Brown / VSBA — Philadelphia, USA

Denise Scott Brown shaped post-modern urbanism alongside Robert Venturi at Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Her theoretical work, particularly the book Learning from Las Vegas, fundamentally changed how architects read cities and everyday environments. Scott Brown received Architizer’s Lifetime Achievement Award and remains one of the most influential women architects in the history of American architecture. The firm’s work can be explored at vsba.com.

17. MOS Architects — New York and Cambridge, USA

Co-founded by Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith, MOS Architects is known for conceptually rigorous small-scale buildings, installations, and research projects. Sample is also a professor at Columbia GSAPP and co-directs the practice’s speculative and built work. MOS is among the women-led architecture firms most consistently recognized in academic and critical contexts for its approach to craft, material, and spatial ambiguity.

18. Counterspace — Johannesburg, South Africa

Founded by Sumayya Vally, Counterspace designed the 2021 Serpentine Pavilion — a structure assembled from fragments of cultural gathering spaces drawn from London’s diasporic communities. Vally’s practice focuses on decolonial urbanism, spatial justice, and the relationship between heritage and contemporary building. As one of the emerging women-owned architecture firms with a growing global profile, Counterspace represents the next generation of socially engaged practice.

19. Estudio Herreros — Madrid, Spain

While Juan Herreros founded this Madrid studio, its current leadership includes prominent women at the design director level, and it has historically supported a strong record of female advancement. The firm is responsible for several landmark museums and cultural buildings across Europe and Latin America, including the Munch Museum in Oslo. It regularly accepts applications through its website and Spanish architecture networks.

20. Brooks Scarpa / Angela Brooks Leadership Projects

Angela Brooks leads a series of affordable housing and community projects under the Brooks + Scarpa umbrella that deserve separate attention. Her work in Los Angeles focuses specifically on housing justice, sustainability, and social equity — areas where women-led landscape architecture and building practices are producing some of the most important work in contemporary American architecture. The firm’s Ribbon Apartments in Santa Monica and the Ford Residence are widely cited examples of high-quality affordable housing design.

What Makes a Women-Led Architecture Firm a Great Place to Work?

Job seekers often ask how to identify the best women architecture firms not just by design reputation but by workplace culture. There are a few consistent markers across the top architectural firms for women in practice.

First, look at leadership structure beyond the founding principal. A firm founded by a woman but staffed predominantly by men at senior levels is different from one where women hold design director, project director, and associate positions throughout the organization. Published pay gap reports, where required by law, can offer useful data — the UK’s annual gender pay gap reporting now covers 18 major architecture practices and shows significant variation.

Second, look at mentorship programs, parental leave policies, and flexible work arrangements. These factors are rarely advertised directly but often surface in interviews and on platforms like Glassdoor, where current and former employees share workplace reviews.

Third, consider the firm’s portfolio from a career development perspective. A women-led landscape architecture firm with a strong track record in civic commissions or cultural buildings gives junior architects a different type of experience than one specializing in luxury residential work. Match the firm’s typological focus to your long-term career ambitions.

How to Find Open Positions at Women-Led Architecture Firms

There are several reliable resources for finding jobs specifically at women-led and women-owned architecture firms.

Archinect Jobs is the most established job board in the profession and regularly publishes curated roundups that highlight firms with female founding principals or senior female leadership. The platform allows you to filter by firm name, location, and experience level, making it practical for targeted searches.

Dezeen Jobs publishes a curated selection of roles at architecture and design studios globally, including specific roundups of female-led practices for International Women’s Day and other occasions.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) maintains a career center with job listings and publishes resources specifically focused on women in architecture through its Women’s Leadership Summit and related programs.

For applying to architecture firms of any kind, building a portfolio that reflects your design sensibility and process documentation is foundational. Firms led by women tend to value clear communication of process, social impact thinking, and collaborative capacity — qualities worth demonstrating explicitly in your application materials.

You can also explore broader context about what defines standout practices by reading about the largest architecture firms in the world, which helps place these women-led studios within the competitive global landscape.

Resources for Women in Architecture

Several professional organizations support women in architecture specifically, beyond the general professional bodies like AIA and RIBA.

The Association for Women in Architecture and Design (AWAD) provides mentorship, networking, and advocacy resources for women at all career stages. The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) documents the contributions of women to American architecture and provides fellowships and research grants. Both organizations maintain job boards and event listings that can connect you with women-led practices actively recruiting.

For those interested in the full history of women in the profession, the history of women in architecture offers essential context, tracing the evolution from the first licensed female practitioners to today’s Pritzker laureates.