Damian Donzé lives life in the fast lane. The 23-year-old from Beckenried is doing things that other architects can only dream of. He is manager of a major architectural project in one of the world’s biggest cities – Shanghai. He tells Alumni reporter Jasmin Arntzen about his experiences in a Skype interview.
Damian Donzé lives life in the fast lane. The 23-year-old from Beckenried is doing things that other architects can only dream of. He is manager of a major architectural project in one of the world’s biggest cities – Shanghai. He tells Alumni reporter Jasmin Arntzen about his experiences in a Skype interview.
Originally from Beckenried on the shores of Lake Lucerne, Damian Donzé has been living in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai since spring 2011. As an architect, he is constructing his own buildings in one of the world’s largest cities. And he is only 23.
He is fascinated by China: a country that is booming and on the move, and Shanghai is the country’s most international city. This is where young Chinese people want to be and where salaries are highest.
Chinese firm Tongji Architectural Design Institute employs 2,500 people, and Damian Donzé is one of three foreign nationals working there. At 13 he attended high school in the United States; at 20 he graduated from the University of Liechtenstein with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. His projects in China are often so large they cover the area of seven football pitches. Projects on this scale are rarely seen in Switzerland.
Alumni reporter Jasmin Arntzen, a student on the Bachelor’s degree programme in Architecture, spoke to him on Skype (with a seven-hour time difference) about his life and his time at the university.
The full interview in PDF format
Further information about Damian Donzé
on his blog damiandonze.ch/
on his YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/DamianDonze
Videos
Damian Donzé’s CV
- 10 December 1989 Born in Stans, Switzerland
- 1989–2001 Grew up in Beckenried, Switzerland
- 2001–2003 ZIEL School, Zurich, Switzerland
- 2003–2007 The Delphian School, Oregon, United States
- 2007 Internship at FMO AG, Beckenried, Switzerland
- 2007–2010 Bachelor’s degree at the University of Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein
- 2010–2011 Internship at Antonietty Architekten, Lucerne, Switzerland
- 2011 Junior Architect at EXH Design, Shanghai, China
- 2011–present Architect at TJAD, Shanghai, China