The profession of an architect, like a doctor or a lawyer, requires many years of education. Constantly taking exams, competing in competitions, working hard and for free, being a good manager and constantly improving the art of self-presentation – this is not a complete list of skills necessary for success. At the same time, practitioners should not forget about an academic career, which should support them in times of construction crises and strengthen their reputation. Designing a house or a city (like health care or legal assistance) we can entrust only to a highly qualified specialist. Is it so? Who entered the history of world architecture without a diploma from an architectural university? Highly visible personalities – Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier , Louis Sullivan, Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd Wright, Luis Barragan, Carlo Scarpa. The list of autodidacts is continued by five of our contemporaries, whose names are known to everyone who cherishes the profession of an architect.
Peter Zumthor (b. 26 April 1946)
“THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN ARCHITECTURE IS NOT THE CREATION OF FORM, BUT COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS: LIGHT, STRUCTURE, SHADOW PLAY, SMELLS, AND SO ON”
The winner of the Pritzker Prize (2009) and the gold medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2013), the Swiss Peter Zumthor followed in his father’s footsteps in his youth and became an apprentice carpenter in a cabinet and chest of drawers workshop. Educated at the Basel School of Arts and Crafts (1963-67) with a degree in design. This was followed by a short stay at New York’s Pratt Institute, where Zumthor continued his studies in industrial design. At the age of 21, he got a job at the Graubünden Department of Monuments Conservation, doing restoration, planning and consulting work. Another twelve years passed before the young talent created his own firm. In a small workshop in the village of Haldenstein, there are only a few employees who have to be on the alert: Zumthor moves and explains quietly. Mendrisio students also have to get used to the slow manner of presentation of their beloved professor. Peter Zumthor is proud that he never took an architecture degree. “Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier came out of a tradition in which all architects still knew what was good and what not to do. We must force the universities to train carpenters, furniture makers and tanners. Architects want to be philosophers and artists.”
Alejandro Aravena (b. June 22, 1967)
“WHEN YOU DRAW, YOU REBUILD. WHEN MEASURING, YOU AGAIN FIND YOURSELF IN FRONT OF AN EMPTY SHEET OF PAPER.”
The pro with Araven’s expressive hairdo is actively engaged in socially responsible projects: his customers are the disadvantaged, his enemy is poverty, segregation and cruelty in cities. Pritzker laureate and curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale (2016) Alejandro AravenaGraduated from the Catholic University of Chile with a degree in mathematics. He studied for a year at the Architectural Institute of the University of Venice (1992-93). In the 90s, he designed restaurants and shops, even opened his own bar, where he worked at night. In 2000, he was called to teach at Harvard, and Aravena, along with a friend, transportation engineer Andres Jacobelli, created Elemental SA, an affordable housing design center. The authors will introduce the concept of “step-by-step housing” or “half of a good house”: builders erect elementary low-rise boxes and conduct communications, residents must manage the rest of the budget on their own, increasing the level of comfort and status of their housing over time. Today, Elemental’s portfolio is quite impressive: 2,500 low-income homes.
Leon Crier (b. 7 April 1946)
“IN OUR TIME, A RESPONSIBLE ARCHITECT CANNOT BUILD ANYTHING … TO BUILD TODAY MEANS ONLY TO MAKE A FEASIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO THE SELF-DESTRUCTION OF A CIVILIZED SOCIETY”
Outwardly, Krie does not look like an architect. Instead of black clothes a la Yamamoto, in Krie’s wardrobe there are wide-brimmed hats, pink ties and silk scarves. He appreciates pen and ink. However, with outward softness, Krie is a merciless polemicist with the passion of a neophyte. The sworn enemy is modernism and the modern city: business parks, shopping centers and endless suburbs. The world of Krie is a world of pedestrians and monuments in a classical style. The main architectural protagonist is Albert Speer, Hitler’s favorite architect, whom Krieu called the last great hope of classical urbanism. What did Crie do to become the undisputed authority for Prince Charles and to be the first to receive the Driehaus Prize (2003) for achievements in “traditional” architecture? After studying for a year at the University of Stuttgart, 24-year-old Krie left him and went for a six-year internship in the British workshop of James Stirling, about whom he immediately wrote a monograph. After that he began to teach at the Architectural Association in London and never left the professorial chair, changing only addresses: London, Princeton, Yale … He wrote, lectured, planned the utopian city of Poundbury in Dorset, was actively engaged in furniture design, being an art director ( since 1990) of the Italian factory Giorgetti. The support of Leon Krier is the older brother Rob, an architect with a German diploma and a software career, who honestly unlearned in his youth (1959-1964) at the Technical University of Munich. He wrote, lectured, planned the utopian city of Poundbury in Dorset, was actively involved in furniture design, being the art director (since 1990) of the Italian factory Giorgetti. The support of Leon Krier is the older brother Rob, an architect with a German diploma and a software career, who honestly unlearned in his youth (1959-1964) at the Technical University of Munich. He wrote, lectured, planned the utopian city of Poundbury in Dorset, was actively involved in furniture design, being the art director (since 1990) of the Italian factory Giorgetti. The support of Leon Krier is the older brother Rob, an architect with a German diploma and a software career, who honestly unlearned in his youth (1959-1964) at the Technical University of Munich.
Thomas Heatherwick (b. 02/17/1970)
“WE DON’T DO STYLE. EACH PROJECT IS A TASK, THE SOLUTION OF WHICH SHOULD BE AS EFFECTIVE AS POSSIBLE. EVERY TIME YOU NEED TO CONDUCT RESEARCH, PAVE A NEW PATH.”
The author of the UK National Pavilion (Expo 2010) and Rolling Bridge, an honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects ( RIBA ), Honorary Doctor of the Royal College of Art, etc., the pride of the country, Thomas Heatherwick received the profession of 3D visualizer. He attended Sevenoaks School in Kent and studied 3D design at Manchester Poly (graduating in 1989). Graduate of the Royal College of Art (1992) in London. Heatherwick’s mentor was Terence Conran., who even invited a talented designer to work on his own country house. Thomas defines projects by size, easily changing from one scale to another. Small – chairs, tables, bags, medium – newsstands, bridges, temporary pavilions and large – large architecture, temples, hotels, power plants. “Development must come to a specific place, so almost scientific work is at the forefront. She’s the most interesting.” The prospects for Heatherwick Studio are grandiose: among the urgent projects – together with Norman Foster himself and Foster + Partners, he is completing the construction of a new cultural center in Shanghai with a copper facade resembling a theater curtain.
Tadao Ando (b. 13 September 1941)
“EVERY SUNDAY I WENT AND LOOKED AT THE OLD BUILDINGS. THE MORE YOU LOOK AT GOOD BUILDINGS, THE MORE LOVE YOU HAVE. THAT’S HOW I GOT INTO ARCHITECTURE.”
A carpenter, truck driver and professional boxer, Ando studied architecture by reading books and traveling. Despite the lack of a diploma, at the age of 35, with the Azuma House project, he won an award from the Architectural Institute of Japan, and in 1995 became a Pritzker Prize laureate. Tadao Ando is called the favorite architect of contemporary art collectors, a brilliant master of meditative spaces and modern monuments. One of his most notable projects is the renovation of the Palazzo Grassi for billionaire Francois Pinault. For him, he is currently reconstructing the Paris stock exchange. Incredible will and hard work help Ando build boutiques, museums, and crematoria. “They say that 15 years is a critical period in life. Then I had a wonderful math teacher who really put his all into teaching math. I was also impressed by the carpenters who continued to work so desperately that they forgot about lunch. Mathematics and carpentry became my starting points in architecture. I couldn’t go to university. I couldn’t even afford to go to architecture school. The only option for me was to study on my own.”