Ada: My Mother the Architect

Monday 18 May, 18:00 - This is a Cinemas of the Mind screening - join us for a free post-film discussion in our studio.

Ada Karmi-Melamede is one of the most accomplished architects in the world, yet her work remains largely unrecognized beyond architectural circles. In the 1970s, she moved to New York from Israel, following her husband’s rising career, and spent the next 15 years balancing academia, large-scale public projects,  and motherhood. While teaching at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, she contributed to major urban initiatives, including a master plan for Con Edison, a study for mixed-use development along the proposed Second Avenue Subway, and a 1978 housing competition on Roosevelt Island—all while raising three young children.

But in the early 1980s, after being denied tenure at Columbia, Ada made a bold decision to leave New York and her family for the opportunity of a lifetime – the design of the new Supreme Court of Israel. While her career flourished, personal sacrifices mounted as she remained far from her family. Ada’s work gave physical form to some of Israel’s highest democratic ideals, shaping landmarks such as the Supreme Court Building, The Open University, the Israel Institute for Democracy, and Ben Gurion University, among many other civic institutions.

Her daughter's film explores their relationship and career-motherhood tensions.

'Architect turned film-maker Yael Melamede presents us with this insightful, though perhaps faintly indulgent, portrait of her mother, Israeli architect Ada Karmi-Melamede' - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian