Talent Spotlight: Annie Wang
International Women's Day 2024
Name: Annie Wang
Role: Intern Architect
Studio: Toronto
How has the architecture & design industry evolved in terms of gender diversity since you began your career, and what changes would you like to see in the future?
Although I am just beginning my architecture career, I am seeing a shift towards gender-diverse perspectives between when I began university almost 10 years ago and now. Recently, in my career and during my master’s program, I had the privilege of working with many talented female peers, professors and colleagues, all who began to challenge the traditional architecture field and highlight what it means to be a female architect in this long-time male-dominated field. I was shocked by a statistic recently comparing the majority number of women in architecture school to the much lower ratio of licensed female architects, so I would love to see these numbers level out more. Personally, that is a major ambition of mine towards licensure.
What would you say to your younger self when you were an architecture student or earlier in your career?
To my younger self, I would say take it easy! I think many things seemed dire at the moment, but looking back, nothing was as severe as it seemed. I would tell myself to enjoy the moment – to have fun during the late-night studio sessions because those were the collective memories that bonded us all so close. I would also advise myself to take more risks and be more ambitious with my projects. We don’t realize until after we are out of school that we will never again have such unique programs to design for with so few constraints.
“Recently in my career and during my master’s program, I had the privilege of working with many talented female peers, professors and colleagues, all who begin to challenge the traditional field of architecture and to highlight what it means to be a female architect in this long-time male dominated field.”
What’s your idea of perfect happiness?
I think happiness doesn’t have to be perfect, nor is it something that exists in every moment. I am someone who reminisces every memory as a happy one – even in the toughest times of my life. I always wonder why and how that is. Perhaps it’s that when looking back, I can always pinpoint something unique about an experience – a moment of growth or value an important connection I made in each of those instances. I consider happiness more abstract and long term. I acknowledge that each day can’t all be perfect or go as planned, but as long as I have the ambition to push myself, have the drive to set goals, and celebrate the small wins with the people I care about – that is pretty close to “perfect” happiness.