Architecture
Building across generations
We spent time in Athens with celebrated Pritzker Prize-winning architect and Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative mentor Sir David Chipperfield
In the week that Sir David Chipperfield won the Pritzker Architecture Prize — the most prestigious global prize in the profession — at a ceremony in Athens, Greece, he was also honoured as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, which were taking place concurrently in the ancient city. He has lent his name, his time, his talent, and his inspiration to the initiative, aimed at creating a global culture that transmits knowledge and perpetuates the arts across and between generations.
As Sir David Adjaye, another architectural luminary and Rolex mentor, says, “It’s become a little like the Oscars — it’s definitely up there as one of the great things to be: becoming director of the Venice Biennale, winning the Pritzker Prize, being a Rolex mentor. It is now part of that garland of great things that one should do as a professional.”
Starting in 2002, the initiative has partnered 63 mentors and protégés from 40 countries in dance, film, literature, music, visual arts, architecture and, since 2020, in an open category to cultivate interdisciplinary work. I was delighted to have my path cross that of Chipperfield at both of these celebrations in Athens, especially considering the architectural heritage of this city, where the Parthenon dominates the landscape, firing imaginations and creating an architectural dialogue with the world for millennia.
Image: Supplied