Clear Architects founder, Melanie Clear, is among the top 9 European architects to be announced as finalists in the Best Woman Architect category of the Women in Construction & Engineering (WICE) Awards 2018.
The WICE Awards aim to highlight and celebrate the most exemplary women working in the construction and engineering sectors across Europe. The awards ceremony will be held at the Hilton Bankside, London on 24 May 2018.
Melanie Clear, London Architect, founder and managing director, says:
“I am absolutely thrilled to be a finalist at the European WICE Awards 2018 and to be recognised not just for the creative input I make into our practice’s projects, but also in my role as a business leader.
Architecture is such a passion of mine, I hope that these awards show aspiring female architects that they belong in this fantastic industry, that hard work is rewarded on merit, that they can achieve commercial and creative success through a career in architecture.
We know that while star architects like Zaha Hadid attracted a lot of attention, only 40% of all architectural graduates have been women over the past decade. Only 3 in the top 100 architect firms are run by women. Architecture need not have a gender bias; it’s ultimately about vision, creativity, and meeting and exceeding client briefs to produce exceptional buildings.”
View the full list of finalists here.
The Judging Process
Following a nomination process where an initial shortlist is created, a carefully-selected panel of judges determines the finalists. The finalists are then invited to attend a judging panel in person, during which the judges determine the overall winner.
This year’s judges included Jane Duncan (president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA, from 2015-2017) and senior management from CBRE, Accenture, Arup, CIAT, Willmott Dixon, KPMG, Arcadis, Deloitte, Mace, Siemens, Rolls-Royce and Balfour Beatty.
In 2018, WICE Awards received 350 entries across 26 categories.