Peter Zumthor selects Paraguayan architect Gloria Cabral as Rolex Arts Initiative protégée

Peter Zumthor has chosen Paraguayan architect Gloria Cabral as Architecture protégée for the 2014-2015 Rolex Arts Initiative. Zumthor, the 2009 Pritzker Prize laureate who was appointed as this year's Architecture mentor, will collaborate with Cabral for one year. Cabral was selected out of four other Architecture finalists announced this past April. 

In each of the program's seven artistic fields, mentors selected three to four finalists, who were originally chosen from a total of 154 nominated applicants. Each mentor met and interviewed their finalists and selected the person he or she felt would gain the most from the one-year mentorship.

Read on for more about Cabral and Zumthor.

The protégée

"For Paraguayan architect Gloria Cabral, designing buildings is based on thinking about how the space will be used rather than conceiving them as objects d’art. Influenced by what she calls the artistic and engineering sides of her parents, Cabral studied architecture at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción. While still studying, she was employed as an intern at prestigious Asuncion-based architecture firm, Gabinete de Arquitectura, and was made a full partner in 2004."

"For the past 10 years, she has worked with the Gabinete team on projects informed by strong environmental and social concerns, notably the Teleton Children’s Rehabilitation Center, which won first prize at the 2010 Bienal Panamericana in the recycling category. Also a committed teacher, Cabral has been a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción since 2009, and has served as visiting professor at universities in Panama and Peru.

She also lectures at universities in several South American countries. Driven by a profound belief in collaborative approaches to work, Cabral hopes that in her mentorship with Peter Zumthor she can bring something to the relationship as well as receive something to help her grow and gain international exposure and experience outside Paraguay."

The mentor

"Widely revered Swiss architect Peter Zumthor (born on 26 April, 1943) has gained international renown for his timeless buildings that incorporate his masterful use of materials and light and challenge the senses.  

Initially working in this father’s cabinet-making firm, Zumthor went on to train as a designer and architect in Basel and at the Pratt Institute in New York. Following more than a decade as a conservation architect, in 1978, he established his own practice in Haldenstein, Switzerland, where he still works with a small staff. Zumthor also worked as a respected architecture professor in the U.S. and Europe.  

Among Zumthor’s most celebrated projects are his “masterpiece”, the Therme Vals (1996, Switzerland), famed for its evocative use of space and exquisite construction details; the Kunsthaus Bregenz (1997, Austria); the Swiss Sound Box, Swiss Pavilion Expo 2000 (Germany); the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel (2007, Germany); and the Kolumba Art Museum (2007, Germany). More recently, he designed London’s 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion with garden designer Piet Oudolf, Norway’s Steilneset Memorial with artist Louise Bourgeois, and the Werkraumhaus in Andelsbuch, Austria (2013)."

Recently, Zumthor was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to bring the museum into the 21st century. He has revealed plans to replace some of the existing structures with a new solar-powered building.'