Over the last few weeks, the question of unpaid internships in architecture has blown up across industry media. The Architecture Lobby is pleased to see an issue we’ve been raising for a long time gain traction in the mainstream. And, we’re pleased to see concrete changes being made: the Serpentine Gallery has prohibited unpaid interns from working on its pavilion, and Elemental, the firm headed by Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena, has ended its almost decade-long unpaid internship program.
Meanwhile, as recently reported by Dezeen, Karim Rashid insists that unpaid internships are a "fork of furthering education." Rashid offers a four-month unpaid internship in his office, justified by his claim that “an intern can learn in three months more than a year or two of education, and education in USA is costing that student $60,000 to $100,000 a year,” making universities, in his view, “far more” exploitative. Yes, the cost of education in the US is outrageous, but to fight an evil with another evil is more so, as is setting up unpaid internships as the winner in this contest. We need to fight both. Indeed, both are the reasons why only the privileged can afford to go into these design professions.
There is no lesser evil in worker exploitation and a prohibitively expensive education system, and there is plenty of work to be done in fighting to change both.
Firms like Rashid’s get away with unpaid interns because the U.S. Department of Labor has loosened the definition of “intern.” According to a new DOL rule, if an internship “primarily benefits” the intern, then it can be unpaid. However, it also says that if the unpaid intern is doing work that displaces a paid employee, it is illegal. While these two conflicting standards allow firms like Rashid’s to capitalize on the legal ambiguity, we all know what is going on: why pay when you needn’t? What is not ambiguous is the fact that if the intern is doing work that will eventually make the firm money — directly or indirectly — then they’re a worker, and they have a right to receive material compensation for the value that they create for the firm. In other words, they deserve to get paid. The experience that students gain in an office setting is the result of performing work. It is not compensation in itself.
Firms have gotten away with this for so long not only because ideology has made this system seem “natural,” and because the only way to enforce DOL rules is through litigation, but also because no one was telling them not to. But no longer.
We have to continue organizing against unfair labor practices in architecture. We have to be vocal about our stances, and find our strength in numbers. We have to continue organizing outside of architecture, joining in fights like the one for a fifteen-dollar minimum wage and free public college. To create sustained, long-term change, we have to make big headlines, but we also have to make noise — every day, together.
Marianela D'Aprile an architecture writer and educator based in Chicago.
Peggy Deamer is Professor Emerita of Yale University’s School of Architecture and principal in the firm of Deamer, Studio. She is the founding member and the Content Coordinator of the Architecture Lobby, a group advocating for the value of architectural design and ...
9 Comments
Do not work for free. Let me say this again DO NOT WORK FOR FREE....
I’ve done this, truthfully most Architecture students do this. 2008-2009 was the worst of the worst for the unpaid intern movement in the architecture community.
The points come down to this.
How much is your time worth?
How much value have you put in yourself Dollar Value!! Time value!!
No one is going to give you what you’re worth, unless you put your value first.
If you’re going to go into a free internship ask better yet TELL them upfront what you want out of the internship. You’re walking into an office for free. Believe me you have leverage, amongst the cheap Vampire part time professor part time Architects or that hipster “Architect designer” that has a website full of renderings with not one built project. You have leverage, go in and negotiate like you’re walking into a six figure salary position or a position as a partner.
You shouldn’t get taxed for someone that doesn’t understand the business aspect of how to run a Architectural/ design firm.
Also to add. Most Architecture firms that are hiring free interns are not paying their interns because they simple do not have the funds to do so.
Also to add. Most Architecture firms that are hiring free interns are not paying their interns because they simple do not have the funds to do so. So you’re learning in an environment of already bad business. A business that doesn’t truly know how to conduct themselves in the larger aspect of things. Why would you want to learn from that? Why would you want to start your career in an environment that already is going in a negative direction. Learn from professionals that build. That actually interact with the rest of the industry.
Both parties should benefit from internship to be non-paid work.
No. Always a paid gig or get the fuck out.
Karim is as much a tool as those taking unpaid gigs.
Shit-Architect
In Manhattan, they say that if you were to throw a stone into a crowd, chances are it would strike a lawyer. In Barcelona, the stone would probably hit an architect. There are almost five thousand registered architects in the Catalan capital, but counting non-registered architects such as yours truly, we probably exceed ten thousand. There is actually a book about Barcelona titled The City of Architects, by Llàtzer Moix (1994).
It is true that Barcelona attracts architects like a stable attracts flies. Here you breathe, eat, and shit architecture. There is always an architectural event in this metropolis, which has no less than five schools dedicated to this discipline, along with many foreign schools of architecture running study-abroad programs. In surveys published annually by Barcelona’s tourism agency, “the architecture” is what visitors to this city rate most highly; more than “the culture” or “the people”. Architecture is an entire economic sector in Barcelona.
Yet despite the glamour enjoyed by this profession, there is an ugly truth: working conditions are terrible. Working as a freelance without social benefits, earning less than a living wage, putting in extra hours without pay, and enduring verbal abuse are part of everyday life in many prestigious offices. Working conditions have only deteriorated since the economic crisis, and are barely improving despite the supposed current “economic recovery”. Yet this period of decline coincides precisely with the rise of architecture superstars: there has never been so much worldwide interest as there is today to learn of the latest winner of the Pritzker Prize, the so-called “Nobel of architecture” even though Mr. Nobel was a scientist and Mr. Pritzker the founder of a hotel chain. Go figure.
The truth is, however, that this profession’s prestige and its deplorable working conditions are two sides of the same coin. Fame is precisely what attracts young talent willing to work for peanuts (or even for free). This is why architects seek fame so badly: “good architecture” is highly labour-intensive. The most prestigious offices the world over depend in large part on unpaid interns who are only too happy to be able to state in their CV that they worked for so-and-so. This is how the architectural economy functions.
Of course, it’s also true that many studios cannot pay decent salaries because the competition for commissions is so cut-throat. We bend over backwards trying to impress juries with our ideas in competitions whose only prize is to be awarded the commission. We must be the only profession that gives its work away for free. And it is even more sad to see how fee discounts form an increasingly important factor in public-sector competitions.
In architecture, then, glamour is merely compensation for terrible working conditions. We can act really cool at a cocktail party (as long as we don’t have an impending deadline) and pretend that we are the cat’s meow, the dog’s bullocks, or whatever, but the reality behind our mask is another: we belong to a profession worth shit.
Arquitecto de mierda
En Manhattan se dice que si tiras una piedra sobre una muchedumbre, probablemente acabe golpeando a un abogado. Si eso lo hicieses en Barcelona, en cambio, la piedra golpearía con toda probabilidad a un arquitecto: en la comarca del Barcelonés hay casi cinco mil colegiados, pero si contamos los no colegiados como es mi caso, probablemente superamos los diez mil. Incluso hay un libro sobre Barcelona titulado La ciudad de los arquitectos (1994), de Llàtzer Moix.
Es verdad que la Ciudad Condal atrae a este gremio igual que un establo atrae moscas. Aquí se respira, se come, y hasta se caga arquitectura. Siempre hay un happening arquitectónico en esta metrópoli, contamos ni más ni menos que con cinco escuelas dedicadas a esta disciplina, sin enumerar las muchas escuelas de arquitectura de todo el mundo que imparten clases aquí. En las encuestas a visitantes que publica anualmente Barcelona Turisme, lo que más valoran los guiris que visitan nuestra ciudad son los edificios y las construcciones, por encima de la cultura o la gente. La arquitectura es todo un sector económico en Barcelona.
A pesar del glamur del que disfruta, la verdad es que esta profesión ofrece unas condiciones de trabajo pésimas. Trabajar como falso autónomo, tener un sueldo de mierda, computar largas horas sin pago y aguantar broncas forman parte del día a día en muchos despachos. La situación laboral se ha deteriorado mucho en los últimos años, tanto durante la crisis como durante la supuesta recuperación. Curiosamente, esta época de decadencia coincide con el auge de las superestrellas de la arquitectura: nunca ha habido tanto interés por saber quién es el ganador del Pritzker Prize, el llamado Nobel de la arquitectura a pesar de que el señor Nobel fue un científico y el señor Pritzker el fundador de una cadena hotelera. En fin.
En realidad, el prestigio del que disfruta esta ocupación y las deplorables condiciones laborales y profesionales van de la mano. La fama de un estudio de arquitectura es precisamente lo que le permite atraer talento joven dispuesto a currar por poco sueldo (o incluso gratis). Por eso los arquitectos buscan tanto la fama: se necesita mucha mano de obra para crear “buena arquitectura”. Los despachos más prestigiosos viven en gran parte de becarios que, en cambio, están encantados de poder incluir en sus currículums que han colaborado en tal o cual despacho. Así funciona la economía arquitectónica.
Lo cierto es que la mayoría de los estudios no pueden pagar sueldos dignos porque el mercado les exige regalar su profesionalidad, tanto a promotores privados como a administraciones públicas. Nos matamos a ofrecer ideas en concursos públicos que tienen como único premio la adjudicación del encargo. Debemos ser el único gremio que regala su trabajo a cambio de nada. Y aún es más triste ver cómo últimamente los jurados de concursos públicos valoran, por encima de la calidad arquitectónica, el descenso de los honorarios.
En esta profesión se compensan con glamur las pésimas condiciones en las que se trabaja. Podemos asistir a un coctel (mientras no estemos con una entrega) y aparentar que somos cojonudos, pero la realidad detrás de esa máscara es otra: una profesión con condiciones económicas de mierda.
source: criticalista.com/2019/03/26/shit-architect-arquitecto-de-mierda/
Karim Rashid subscribes to the un-paid model because he hires young beautiful eastern European girls that he meets on his frequent trips to the Ukraine and other eastern European countries. Having been a full-time designer at his firm in the past, I know this for a fact. He promises them experience, and asks them to come into the US on a visitors visa, and in many cases he has sexually harassed them and has had sexual relations with some of them while they are still working for him as interns. They then find themselves in a position that they cannot report it as it would jeopardize their chances to enter the US in the future given, they entered on visitors’ visa vs. student or work visas when coming to work at the Karim Rashid studio. All staff is aware of this behavior, and have very little respect for him due to it and this is why staff frequently resign. Some years ago we all witnessed an outburst from one of the interns at our studio Christmas party. She disclosed to some of the staff at the event that she was having an affair with him while he was still married. He had her physically removed from the event that evening and fired her from her internship the next day.
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