IAESTE Annual Review 2018

Employers and Universities
The Swiss architecture office & general planners Burckhardt+Partner
has been cooperating with IAESTE Switzerland for more than ten years,
welcoming interns in architecture that come from all over the world. During
these years, over 40 students were given the chance to gain valuable
work experience and deepen their architectural skills. This wonderful longterm
collaboration has continuously been developed further. Today, B+P
offers IAESTE about ten apprenticeship positions all over Switzerland.
This successful alliance has led to a sponsoring partnership which was
established in 2017.
Burckhardt+Partner: Insight of the company
For more than 65 years, Burckhardt+Partner has been showing a holistic
approach as an architecture and design construction office. Our core
business focuses on architecture including all facets of the construction
engineering. Our project development department and our subsidiary
offices based in Switzerland (Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich)
and elsewhere in Europe (Berlin, Grenzach and Stuttgart) complete the
overall offer.
More than 370 staff and trainees, aged from 17 to 70, from around
20 nations with over 15 different native languages – altogether shape
our corporate culture. We maintain an atmosphere of respect, tolerance,
openness, commitment and transparency.
We pay attention to detail not only in architecture but also in dealing
with one another. Especially because we are a large team, we try to
match various general conditions with individual employees. We actively
encourage discourse between sites, groups and professional fields
with inter-site advanced training programmes, joint events, excursions
and cultural activities. The overall balance must be right – in economic,
professional and human terms.
B+P office in Zurich (left to right): supervisor Martin and IAESTE interns Stavros
and Karolina with other team members
Visit of the office in Zurich
One of the Burckhardt+Partner offices is in Zurich, within walking distance
of the National office of IAESTE Switzerland. This offers a great opportunity
for Gaby, our incoming Exchange coordinator, to stop by and meet the
supervisors and staff as well as the current interns staying there.
The office is located right in the old city centre of the town, a very picturesque
work location. In Zurich, 35 employees and our two students, Stavros from
Greece and Karolina from Poland, are involved in current projects and
competitions supervised by Martin. Thanks to the openness of Martin’s
team, it is not a problem if the trainee does not speak any German. On
the other hand, he appreciates it if the trainees are knowledgeable in the
newest programming skills for visualization and drafts, something which
also benefits the team during the daily work.
Trainee Alexandru Girtan during his internship at B+P in Zurich
For Karolina it is not her first architecture internship, but still very different
from the one before, as the work here in Switzerland is challenging and
already lots of responsibility is assigned to her. Nevertheless, Karolina states
that she finds this approach very interesting, enhancing her development
on a personal and professional level.
For Stavros, this is his first practical working experience as well as first stay
abroad. As he started his internship during winter (which was very long
and cold this year), he says that he is now happy that the sunnier and
warmer days are back, so he can enjoy his leisure time outdoors after
the long working days. Both of them are looking forward to experience a
fantastic internship and plan to enjoy their stay to the fullest.
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