Eva Raffaella Menga (Member of Albert)

Eva Raffaella Menga is owner of ERM office, an Architectural Design office based in Brussels. And founder of CC common connection, a design consultancy that differs itself with a collective mindset. She nourishes the feeling of being able to create something in silence with nothing but her hands. And the loneliness that comes with it is liberating. She always preferred to work with a narrative that represents the identity of the customer, the clients embody a certain archetype and she takes this as the basis of the design process.

What does power mean to you?
“Power is knowledge, Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future. I personally thrive on this expectation in my office, we aim to create an impact through design, by merging the analytical with poetical concepts. I personally relate enormously to define the meaning of simplicity, I guess it is a trace of my past, growing up in Belgium with an Italian and German nationality these cultures differentiate in mindset and characteristics, and in this complex duality I kept on searching for definitions, answers and meaning. So I went abroad to combine work and Architecture studies in Berlin and Design in Milano, defining a career in creating solutions. The core of these professions re-define narratives, combined with esthetics about ‘how it makes us feel’, If that is not power, then what is? This mindset gave me a multi-disciplinary value and international acknowledgement."

Do you consider yourself to be a powerful woman?
"I think it is a hard time for designers and architects today, because our profession is in a way paradoxically, it is the hardest and most adjusted - specialized profession with less and less recognition. We are in charge of the impossible task of formulating a new image of life for people, even imaginary it is not likely that I live up to my standard but it motivates my office to be confident in our vision of ‘simplicity is complexity resolved’. I was asked to step in as a professor and lecturer and this educational profession gives my practices a reason to shape people into growth. It’s not easy to face the conflict of contradiction, not in life nor during the design process. But the expectations that we have in life are full of intrinsic motivation that shapes our dogma, I wanted to defragment them and build it with my own architectural principles."

Which powerful woman do you admire the most?
"That's is a compromising choice, while I admire so many women from Sofia Coppola as a magnificent visual storyteller, to Mariana Mazzucato the visionary economist who repairs our planets future in science... Due to our similar profession Charlotte Perriand, the formal French architect. Perriand influenced the relation of human in a space, in my opinion most likely how Bauhaus founders wanted to see design made by people and industry for the society."

What do you think is the biggest issue that women face today?
"Lets change the word issue into challenge, then women are challenged everyday to find and defend their own true principles. Imagine while being mother of life and on the other hand a beautiful sensitive(equals)strong women who change the image of tomorrow. All of us are undeniable strong multi-taskers, able to connect the common connection and all the dots. Like Mariana Mazzucato puts forward, imagine if we would welcome a proactive mindset and government, which co-creates with the market instead of waiting on the sidelines to take final action and correct market failure, we have to realize that the time to design our future is now!"

Catherine of Into the deep content (Member of Harmony)

Catherine Op de Beeck, is in love with life and especially with all the little things. She has a passion for all that is refined, for languages, art, deep talks and entrepreneurship. Into the deep content is specialized in content marketing for companies and brands with a focus to look forward. But not in the allround marketing kinda way. They have a passion for communication with value and depth, this always with a strong focus on customer experience.Their tagline explains it all. Your content marketing partner, done.

What does power mean to you?
"Power to me means to be able to change. I believe – such as Darwin - that it’s not the most strongest nor the most intelligent people that survive, but the ones most adaptable to change. Even this way of thinking is in line with my content marketing focus. Becoming a Change Coach. Beside that I believe that the power to change has a lot of positive assets! It’s dynamic. The moment you change, you grow wiser with experience and time. It gives perspective. It’s a challenging adventure!"

Do you consider yourself to be a powerful woman?
"Yes I do! Referring to my philosophy that power is the ability to change I can say that I’ve faced quite a lot of changing adventures. But being a powerful woman is more like a lifestyle to me. It’s not an attitude. It’s the way you manage to stay in balance in powerful situations or to keep going when life challenges you on difficult roads. A powerful woman has an awareness of the obstacles on her way and the expectations people have for her, but she decides for herself what she wants and works hard to achieve it. Furthermore, a strong woman is willing to find help or gain strength from supportive friends, family members and mentors despite the notion that women should be “independent” and “do it all."

Which powerful woman do you admire the most?
"There is not like one powerful woman that I admire the most. I adore every self-aware woman who stands up for herself, who’s a fighter, dares to speak up and who follows her dreams and ambitions with great passion. A woman that is unapologetic about who she is and doesn’t look for love in that other person but finds it in herself. And of course I admire my mom the most … but that is cliché, right?"

What do you think is the biggest issue that women face today?
"The biggest issue can be in any area of life, from access to education and choices for girls and young women around the world, to gender stereotyping in toys, and access to flexible working across every level of a business. There are several challenges to face and that’s why the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is Choose to Challenge! Cause a challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change! Well… I’m totally IN."