Belgium: Simone Guillissen-Hoa
Born in 1916 in Peking (Beijing), China to a Chinese father and Polish-Jewish mother, Simone Guillissen-Hoa was one of the first women to establish an architectural firm in Belgium (c. 1940s). She held a diploma in architecture from the Institut Supérieur des Arts Décoratifs (ISAD) at La Cambre in Bruxelles, Belgium, becoming the fourth woman to graduate from ISAD in architecture (1938). Guillissen-Hoa was part of the Belgian resistance movement; she was a member of the Front de l’Indépendance. Guillissen-Hoa was imprisoned in Brussels then deported to Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands then Ravensbrück (1944) and AGFA Kommando, both in Germany. After her release, she returned to Belgium, and joined the Soroptimist Association (c. 1950s). She also participated in establishment of the Belgian branch of the International Union of Women Architects (c. 1970s). Guillissen-Hoa was featured in a posthumous exhibition, “Discover Simone Guillissen-Hoa: Draw Her Portrait,” curated by Silvia Franceschini at the Centre International pour la Ville l’Architecture et le Paysage (CIVA) in Brussels, Belgium (2024). She died in 1996 in Brussels, Belgium.
References
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