One of the most successful women in Romanian, architecture, Silvia Maria Luisa Păun was born in Chișinău (today in Moldova) in 1923. As a child, the future architect frequently moved due to her father’s work. In 1940, the family took refuge from the Second World War in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Finally, they settled in Bucharest, where Păun attended high school. She then proceeded to study architecture at the Ion Mincu Institute, graduating in urban planning in 1949. As a student, she was mentored by Henrieta Delavrancea.

For the entire duration of her career, between 1953 and 1977, Păun worked at the Central Institute of Architecture and Urbanism (Instituto Estatal Central de Arquitectura y Urbanismo) in Bucharest. Overall, she designed over 50 projects for different parts of the country, including healthcare, education, and cultural buildings: schools, medical centers and hospitals, research centers, hotels, banks, and residential buildings. The most prominent among her works are the Hospital in Târgu Mureș (with Emilian Machedon) and the Epidemic Diseases Laboratory in Pitesti.

Păun was also a prolific author, who published articles on such topics as the role of schools, architecture’s communicative role, and the architecture in Romania. Overall, she published over 70 articles, curated 14 exhibitions, and authored six books: Guía Técnica de Arquitectura (Technical Guide to Architecture); Las identidades no publicados europeas: Italia– Rumania en la prehistoria, la etnia, la arquitectura (Unpublished European Identities: Italy-Romania in Prehistory, Ethnicity, Architecture, 1996); Programas preescolares Arquitectura: jardines de infancia (Preschool Programs Architecture: Kindergartens, 1981); Rumania: Las Señales Celestiales (Romania: The Celestial Signs, 1999); El ábside del altar (The Apse of the Altar, 2000).

Silvia Păun’s archive is housed at the International Archive of Women in Architecture at Virginia Tech.