Swiss architect Simon Kretz is the lucky protégé who will get to work with David Chipperfield in a year-long architecture mentorship from the 2016-17 Rolex Arts Initiative. The prestigious philanthropic program allows rising young artists worldwide to team up with globally esteemed professionals in their respective disciplines in Architecture, Film, Dance, Literature, Visual Arts, Music, and Theatre. Imagine exchanging ideas with figures like Peter Zumthor, Kazuyo Sejima, or Álvaro Siza, who have all been previously appointed as the architecture mentor.
In selecting his protégé, Chipperfield conducted one-on-one interviews with the three finalists, which included Kretz, Luis Callejas of Colombia, and Anna Puigjaner of Spain — who in fact, won the 2016 Wheelwright Prize just last week.
Gaining experience in Zurich-based firms as well as big-name practices like OMA Rotterdam, Kretz co-founded Christina Nater und Simon Kretz Architekten in 2010 and then he became founding partner of Christian Salewski & Simon Kretz Architekten in 2014. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer at ETH Zurich's Department of Architecture and Department of Engineering.
Chipperfield cited Kretz for his ability to design at various scales and for his interest in designing projects that enhance the urban environment. Throughout the program, Kretz and Chipperfield will collaborate with each other for up to six weeks. Each protégé will receive 25,000 Swiss francs to support his or her participation in the mentorship, and an additional 25,000 Swiss francs for the realization of a new work by the end of the 2016-17 cycle.
Previously:
Peter Zumthor selects Paraguayan architect Gloria Cabral as Rolex Arts Initiative protégée
Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor Kazuyo Sejima Selects Yang Zhao as Architecture Protégé
47 Comments
A white male design power chooses another white male as his protege. How original. And then architects complain about the diversity problem in the design field. Wonder why...
So are you saying he should disqualify white guys?
^ Pretty overly simplified statement about the cause for the lack of diversity. As explained in the Obama admins study, occupational licensing is a real cause for our lack of diversity....of course the lefties who tend to care more about minorities also tend to blindly support government beurocracy more so than the righties...the concerned side refuses to acknowledge the real cause of the problem because it challenges their world view that more govt is good and that we should be protected by a nanny state...
You create a barrier to entry that costs 100k and requires 5 post grad years of low pay job hopping and then wonder where all the minorities are...lol...
https://fee.org/articles/obamas-econ-advisers-occupational-licensing-is-a-disaster/
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-07-30/obama-sees-the-light-on-job-licenses
Oversimplifying is to think of it as an issue of right and left. Licensing process, education opportunities, and countless other barriers contribute to a snowball effect and should be addressed.
so DesignEnthusiast is racist and sexist? the finalists were technically diverse, assuming you read anything above. feel better now?
Looks to me like they chose the energetic one with the biggest smile. Thanks, Make-A-Wish Foundation!
Looks like there is a little bit of oversimplification on both sides...
But the interesting part of this is that it appears to harken back to the old model of being tapped because you are "qualified." We'll never know what the questions were, or how big his Kretz's smile really was (he might even have 15 minute comedy bit about Eisenman and Schumacher at an old country buffet). But this thing is that just based on the selection he is being "made," evidence being this post. I'm not sure that jives with regulation or deregulation.
I'm with Design Enthusiast on this. The profession needs to be more diverse. Chipperfield could have demonstrated some leadership on this.
Agreed davvid, but that's not the point of this process.
The point is to select someone you know who is in the "club" and to then celebrate them for their work (and to celebrate them for the people they already know). Furthermore, I'm not sure how you can point at Chipperfield when it's the circle of friends who wrote the letters that are equally if not more complicit. If you want to talk about diversity in the profession, it's not a leadership problem, it's systemic.
what is diverse?
let's say his work was the most diverse and the other two non-white males did very white male shit....
it's an oversimplification as already stated and the stupidity started with Design Enthusiast.
you know like Donald Trump making a dumbass statement and everyone responding at the same level. DesignEnthusiast=Donald Trump?
Leadership is choosing the correct person for the position.
You all should probably write Simon Kretz an apology letter now for discounting all his skills and talent because you can't see pass his male whiteness.
Good question ODN, and I'm betting there's a working definition in the UK that we could evaluate the pool and short list against. Then we could twist it to our purposes to make everything seem fair as we see fit.
I'm going to assume that Design Enthusiast is young enough not to just take this for granted., So kudos. I honestly wonder if there are any outside cultural influences that are engendering this reaction.
But I'm not convinced by your argument leadership is choosing the correct person. There are too many occasions when it's just the "hey, who do you know," or "you wanna come with," and the occasional "well they can't be talented, just look at them." That's not leadership, that's exclusion.
Here's my (absurd) solution- Chipperfield does a television show with the BBC where a group of international applicants are flown to an island with a set similar to the village in the original "The Prisoner." There they contemplate architecture on screen, compete in design charrettes and get interviewed by Chipperfield while being recorded. Chipperfield selects from a pool determined by a popular twitter vote.
"White people" is a very broad category. Lots of diversity in there...from the Swiss to the Trailer parks in West Virginia...
We need to hire more swamp people, I don't see a single swamp folk at all in this profession.
marc i like the reality show, good TV and lets make sure we define diversity according to MTV.........all I am pointing out is that a few people here have already discounted the merit of his work based on race and sex. This is the definition of discrimination.......but i know white males can be discriminated against as-of-right since we all meet in secret socities and pull the puppet strings of planet earth.......to my diverse point take Cameron Sinclair as an example.
The fact is that none of these people matter to the actual profession and this hero worship does us all a disservice. I didn't even know who either of these people were and had to look them up. Maybe Architectural news publications should focus on the profession and not tabloid fashion.
Damn secret societies...
JLA your approach using segmentation could yield some surprising results, but still lacks nuance to consider LGBT segments...
Bundy, you didn't know of Chipperfield? Who would you put in his place? Note: they must have 50k in swiss francs to toss out at will (which is another thing altogether).
are the free masons from switzerland via the crusaders?
I'm betting he just prefers Switzerland over Panama.
Of course my comment was so ‘stupid’. That’s why it triggered intolerant and narrow-minded people to spill their boiling hate all over.
Not stupid at all, but nuanced. Again, kudos for being expecting more.
simon kretz is a lecturer at the ETH and has his own office. that's not really up and coming. that's more like, established professional.
and that is a valid reason to pass over selecting kretz.
and to boot, the protege and master dynamic seems really paternal and over bearing. why not do a studio or select more than one protege?
i'm for mentorship, but 25k francs could have been used more productively on people who are more along the lines of undiscovered or showing promise.
agreed no_form. but this isn't really mentoring, it's patronage.
in the words of Kipnis, " Chipperfield? Great guy, but he's a drunk."
As far as diversity... I am sympathetic with both sides. of the issue. Those trained and inculcated into the western-european tradition of enlightenment ideals and modern architecture have an advantage because, well, those ideas are better. Yes, we should (and have) invite more diverse populations to participate in these traditions, but more and more it seems as those these diverse populations are rejecting any engagement in what they see as a historically oppressive patriarchy that is fundamentally flawed. I believe that the current neo-liberal manifestation of this is often deeply flawed, but still our best shot at extending universal rights, dignity, and equality to everyone. Just because one recipient of one prize happens to be white (itself a problematic classification) does not make the entire system corrupt.
Good points no form. Diversity of ideas is much more important than skin tone, sex, or gender...Yes, different backgrounds often bring different perspectives, but not necessarily in a way completely tied to race, sex, or gender...I would argue that ones socio-economic upbringing and overall built environment that they grew up in have a much much greater relevance on their architectural perspective...Is a white guy from Brooklyn more closely related to a black guy from Brooklyn of another white guy who Grew up in some pristine town in the Swiss alps?
yup DesignEnthusiast - you could be Trumps VP at that rate......
If we live in such a flawless meritocracy where it’s always the smartest and the most talented people who are rewarded, why aren’t there more people in leadership positions representing diverse socio-economic & ethnic backgrounds and gender expressions? Why is the most of the incarcerated population in the US coming from minority groups? Oh yes, because they’re not smart and talented, right.
Because
1. the barriers to success are more difficult to overcome if you are poor.
2. Poverty breeds ignorance. Kids from poor families are generally not taught by parents to strive for such high professional goals.
3. The profession is not representative of the needs of their community...if you were black and from a community where buildings were neglected, would you feel a drive to become part of a profession that builds fancy homes for th rich white people on the other side of the tracks?
We do not live in a meritocracy. We should strive to though...rather than deny or accept people based on skin color...that dosent fix anything...it's a bandaid...To fix things we need to do a few things imo.
1. Lower the barriers to entry.
2. Engage the schools and expose kids to profession at a young age...especially with other professionals who they can relate to...
3. Serve communities of need. I am currently trying to start a program that will allow low income homeowners to remodel their (often neglected and water dependent) landscape with xeric and native plants to beautify neighborhoods, bring residents in touch with nature, and to save water/$...I don't want it to feel like a charity...rather a community based program...built by the people...with some material donations maybe...
Or maybe more interesting to propagate new plants from existing neighborhood plants...would be cool to do it in a way that is self sustaining....
Thank you jla-x for the actions items. Glad that a conversation much needed for the profession has started here.
I'm not denying anyone - it's not my place to. Just pointing it out. It is what it is.
DE its too bad you are not capable of much more than a Trump post....you might be more convincing
ODN, how is what DE proposing a Trump position?
the merit of their statements, simple and not expanded upon like jla-x or like you might Marc, are short sighted, intetionally provoking and ultimately racist and sexist no matter how you spin it. they have a hole to dig themselves out of....you know like Trump on Muslims....
An oppressed group can not be racist or sexist against oppressors. Historically and systemically discriminated people can only try to gain and protect their rights.
Who is the oppressor?
That doesn't make the argument a Trump derivative. Just not completely fleshed out.
The comment about meritocracy is valid. But I need to pause and put things in perspective because while I was reading all earlier I was also listening to an amazing podcast I happened upon with Mabel Wilson from Columbia. The were some crazy points brought up, like there are only 6 tenured women (no source cited) in architecture schools and 83 percent of the architecture programs in the united states don't have African American faculty- all in this embedded in a much larger discourse about race and design. good listen, she brings up a lot of points that are relevant in this discussion.
social injustice does not justify hate. we are also talking about architecture.....marc it is the equivalent of Trump. i doubt DE eould vote for Trump but there really is no difference here.
I think that one of the key differences is that DE's initial prompt was intended to be provocative whereas the proclamations by Trump are suppressive. Added to that as a forum discourse and exchange are part of the process, capable of helping people evolve arguments and ideas.
Don't mix everything with your hate ODN. It's only you who is hateful here.
architecture.
marc i am pretty sure its suppressive, notice how the debate is spiralling into the deep seeded issues of DE.....this Rolex Arts award isnt exactllt a civil rights issue and yes this is a forum, but if you are going to dismiss someone on architecture forum it should probably be about architecture.
I'm not following that, are you saying architecture is not a social practice?
And there's no architecture in the post to critique, so let's dig some up.
Kretz
Callejas
Puigjaner
This article in The Atlantic is relevant to this discussion.
archanon you are on to me and my mockery of radical left wing racism (not possible they say)......anyway - Marc I reviewed Kretz website the graphics are very Chipperfield, the work that respects history and contexts is very Chipperfield - clearly this is a result of racist and sexist decision making......I do like Pulgjaner's graphics - has a John Hejduk think going on.
clearly this is a result of racist and sexist decision making
-again, we will never know. But I agree, very Chipperfield. For the meantime I'll keep the maintain an image of Kretz doing standup routine about PE and PS in an old country buffet ( and then they both say- "ding, ding, the ring of freshness!" Chipperfield laughs).
Oh, I missed a correction- "6 tenured African American women" (phone, mea culpa). But I would take the time to listen to that podcast.
thats why he ain't smiling. his routine isnt killing it beyond the gebirgelande and one guy in England.
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