Peter Zumthor
Peter Zumthor
Peter Zumthoris a Swiss architect whose work is frequently described as uncompromising and minimalist. Though managing a relatively small firm, he is the winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize and 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth26 April 1943
CountrySwitzerland
people design arrogance
I design for the use of a building and the place and for the people who use it... the reputation for arrogance comes because when work is offered to me, I look whether I can find a genuine interest in quality.
commitment names together
I need a close contact to the client, whoever it is, and a commitment of the client to go out and do a process together. I want to do the best for him. I need his respect and his patience. I want to work with a sophisticated person who's interested in a good building and not in my name.
home hands years
I grew up in a craftsman's home, where things were done with our own hands. I did cabinetmaking for four years and I hated it.
letting-go order care
Architecture to me is whole. I cannot say I only care about this 25% and the other 75% I let go... it's just I want to work the way I want to work. In my shop, you can order certain things and other things you cannot. They are not available.
real quality paper
There is still a real need for good quality architecture, not paper architecture, but the real stuff.
thinking chance architecture
I think the chance of finding beauty is higher if you don't work on it directly. Beauty in architecture is driven by practicality. This is what you learn from studying the old townscapes of the Swiss farmers.
thinking architecture
There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it,
quiet plant company
My relationship to plants becomes closer and closer. They make me quiet; I like to be in their company.
simple space mountain
If you look at the Earth without architecture, its sometimes a little bit unpleasant. So there is this basic human need to do shelter in the broadest sense of the word, whether its a movie theater or a simple log cabin in the mountains. This is the core of architecture: To provide a space for human beings.
passionate architect
I’m a passionate architect... I do not work for money
wall believe simple
Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting, it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens I have seen, that I believe I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls, columns, arcades or the facades of buildings - sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time.
design trying quality
When I concentrate on a specific site or place for which I am going to design a building, I try to plumb its depths, its form, its history and its sensuous qualities.
waste resistance architecture
In a society that celebrates the inessential, architecture can put up a resistance, counteract the waste of forms and meanings and speak its own language.
art trying shapes
What I try to do is the art of building, and the art of building is the art of construction; it is not only about forms and shapes and images.