Zumthor Selects Gloria Cabral as Protégé

Zumthor was selected in October 2013 as the architecture mentor, following fellow Pritzker Prize winner Kazuyo Sejima's stint in 2012. Rolex funds the initiative in architecture as well as dance, film, literature, music, visual arts, and theatre, pairing mentor and protégé for one year in what Zumthor describes as a "professional artistic exchange and research outside of everyday economics."

Cabral has been a partner in the Asunción-based firm, Gabinete de Arquitectura, since 2004, having graduated from Universidad Nacional de Asunción the previous year. Her work in the firm has focused on projects with strong environmental and social concerns, best known in the Teleton Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Asunción. "All of the work we do at the Gabinete," she says in a statement, "starts from ideas about bringing some benefit – either to the people who are going to use the buildings or to the city around them." In addition to the practice she also has taught at her alma mater since 2009.