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SERIEN LEHRJAHRE BEI ... • WORKING AT ...

Zürich M r Riker, for approximately three years, you have been working as an archi-
tect at pool Architekten in Zurich. What made you start your professional
career right there?
Weitere Architekturbüros: During my studies, I was able to gain an insight into the office of pool Architekten on
Foto: Michael Riker Schneider Studer Primas, www.schneiderstuderprimas.ch liked the relaxed, creative atmosphere and thus applied for a traineeship. As a trai-
an excursion to Zurich. What intrigued me was the unusual office organization. I also
Michael Meier Marius Hug Architekten AG, www.meierhug.ch
nee, I was able to get more in-depth insight into the office as well as into various pro-
jects. During the last months of my traineeship, I worked in the competition team.
The special studio atmosphere as well as working on interesting projects in a moti-
vated team where the members are mutually supportive was the reason why I also
wanted to independently work on competitions after finishing my studies.

r pool – the name says it all. The Zurich office is managed by eight equal partners
as a cooperative. How does this affect the functioning of the office?
What is special about pool is certainly that there is no uniform “pool language”.
Rather, it is the approach, the work process as such which is pool-specific. Thus one
partner is responsible for each project and an additional partner supervises the pro-
ject as a Götti, which means godfather in Swiss German. At regular intervals, each
project is presented to all the partners in the “poolatelier” and then also discussed.
For the employees, this is highly interesting since the discussions are held very openly
and everyone is welcome to contribute no matter what his or her position.

r Originally, the office was founded as a discussion platform in 1994. All the part-
Axonometrie: pool Architekten as guest professors at the TU Berlin, the TU Vienna and at the Bern University of
ners were furthermore active in academic teaching, as guest lecturers at the ETH,
Applied Sciences in Burgdorf. Would you please go into detail a bit more regar-
ding the already mentioned discourse in the office?

in the office. The individual project teams schedule a “jour fixe” every week. In addi-
VBZ-Busgarage/ ERZ-Werkhof in Zürich: Fachwerkbinder überspannen die Halle stützenfrei. As I already said before, the internal architectural discourse plays an important role
tion, each Monday afternoon the already mentioned “poolateliers” take place. The
In Muttenz bei Basel entsteht derzeit der Neubau der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz; ...
almost weekly “whirlpool” as well again and again leads to interesting discussions.
This is when short presentations are given by employees or external speakers. A
monthly newsletter as well as the employees’ meetings every month also ensures that
we are given interesting insights into other projects even though the office numbers
almost 80 employees. Also a pleasure are the regularly arranged rounds of drinks on
our roof terrace as well as office trips, for instance the one to Piedmont two years ago.
In spring 2018, we will all travel to Belgrade.

r In which projects were you able to participate during the past three years and
which were your tasks?
During my traineeship, I initially participated in the, until then, largest pool project,
Schnittperspektive: pool Architekten Muttenz near Basel. With this building project, I first became familiar with the struc-
the new building for the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland in

ture of a major project and I worked on developing the courtyard façade. After my
graduation, I worked for two years in the competition team. During this period, I was
given the chance to design on a wide variety of scales. The spectrum ranged from
urban-development studies to housing competitions all the way to the Haus der
Gegenwart in Lenzburg and the VBZ bus depot in Zurich. Since, last year and in
... hier ein Blick ins Atrium mit seiner spannenden Wegeführung.
cooperation with Caruso St John Architects and Boltshauser Architekten, we succee-
ded in winning the competition for the Hardturm site, I have been working as a sub-
project manager on the new football stadium in Zurich. As a young, motivated archi-
tect, at pool you are relatively quickly given the chance to take on responsibility. In
my personal experience, it is thereby not a disadvantage to be non-Swiss, neither
inside the office nor when dealing with authorities, clients or specialist planners.

r Which tips do you have for young architects and students who also want to gain
a foothold professionally in Zurich or anywhere else in Switzerland?
For me, Zurich – and pool in particular – was a very good to start my working life.
Here you are able to test yourself as an architectural student or as a young architect
under good working conditions and gain initial experience. The choice of interesting
Baustellenfoto: pool Architekten several years already and to be proficient in the usual CAD programmes. It is also
architectural offices is large in Switzerland. It is an advantage to have studied for
important to be able to work as independently as possible in a team. The construc-
tion industry is currently doing well in Switzerland, which is why one certainly has
good career prospects as a young architect.

048 • AIT 12.2017