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Peter Zumthor

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born

April 26, 1943 in Basel, Switzerland

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From the Pritzker Prize website, http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureate...:

Peter Zumthor was born on April 26, 1943, the son of a cabinet maker, Oscar Zumthor, in Basel, Switzerland. He trained as a cabinet maker from 1958 to 1962. From 1963-67, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Vorkurs and Fachklasse with further studies in design at Pratt Institute in New York.

In 1967, he was employed by the Canton of Graubünden (Switzerland) in the Department for the Preservation of Monuments working as a building and planning consultant and architectural analyst of historical villages, in addition to realizing some restorations. He established his own practice in 1979 in Haldenstein, Switzerland where he still works with a small staff of fifteen. Zum...more From the Pritzker Prize website, http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureate...:

Peter Zumthor was born on April 26, 1943, the son of a cabinet maker, Oscar Zumthor, in Basel, Switzerland. He trained as a cabinet maker from 1958 to 1962. From 1963-67, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Vorkurs and Fachklasse with further studies in design at Pratt Institute in New York.

In 1967, he was employed by the Canton of Graubünden (Switzerland) in the Department for the Preservation of Monuments working as a building and planning consultant and architectural analyst of historical villages, in addition to realizing some restorations. He established his own practice in 1979 in Haldenstein, Switzerland where he still works with a small staff of fifteen. Zumthor is married to Annalisa Zumthor-Cuorad. They have three children, all adults, Anna Katharina, Peter Conradin, and Jon Paulin, and two grandchildren.

Since 1996, he has been a professor at the Academy of Architecture, Universitá della Svizzera Italiana, Mendrisio. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Southern California Institute of Architecture and SCI-ARC in Los Angeles in 1988; at the Technische Universität, Munich in 1989; and at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University in 1999.

His many awards include the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2008 as well as the Carlsberg Architecture Prize in Denmark in 1998, and the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture in 1999. In 2006, he received the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture from the University of Virginia. The American Academy of Arts and Letters bestowed the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture in 2008.

In the recent book published by Barrons Educational Series, Inc. titled, Architectura, Elements of Architectural Style, with the distinguished architectural historian from Australia, Professor Miles Lewis, as general editor, the Zumthor’s Thermal Bath building at Vals is described as “a superb example of simple detailing that is used to create highly atmospheric spaces. The design contrasts cool, gray stone walls with the warmth of bronze railings, and light and water are employed to sculpt the spaces. The horizontal joints of the stonework mimic the horizontal lines of the water, and there is a subtle change in the texture of the stone at the waterline. Skylights inserted into narrow slots in the ceiling create a dramatic line of light that accentuates the fluidity of the water. Every detail of the building thus reinforces the importance of the bath on a variety of levels.”

In the book titled Thinking Architecture, first published by Birkhauser in 1998, Zumthor set down in his own words a philosophy of architecture. One sample of his thoughts is as follows: “I believe that architecture today needs to reflect on the tasks and possibilities which are inherently its own. Architecture is not a vehicle or a symbol for things that do not belong to its essence. 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. I believe that the language of architecture is not a question of a specific style. Every building is built for a specific use in a specific place and for a specific society. My buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can.”(less)

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Books by Peter Zumthor

Average rating: 4.37 · 364 ratings · 27 reviews · 12 distinct works

	Thinking Architecture: 2nd Expanded Edition 4.36 avg rating — 215 ratings — published 1998 — 14 editions	My rating:
	Atmospheres: Architectural Environments - Surrounding Objects 4.39 avg rating — 95 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	Peter Zumthor Works 4.67 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1997 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Peter Zumthor. Three Concepts by Peter Zumthor, Architekturgalerie Luzern 3.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1997 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Thermal Baths at Vals (Exemplary Projects, no. 1) by Peter Zumthor, Mohsen Mostafavi 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1996	My rating:
	Peter Zumthor: Kunsthaus Bregenz 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1999 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Corps Sonore Suisse: Lexique Du Pavillon de La Confederation Helvetique Pour L'Expo 2000 a Hanovre 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2000 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Peter Zumthor Therme Vals by Sigrid Hauser (Photographer), Helene Binet (Photographs), Peter Zumthor (Editor) 4.44 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 2007	My rating:
	Zumthor: Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award 2006 by Mikka Heikkinen, Peter Zumthor, Michael Hornborg (Foreword) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2006	My rating:
	Steilneset minnested : til minne om de trolldomsdømte i Finnmark = Steilneset Memorial : to the victims of the Finnmark witchcraft trials by Line Ulekleiv (editor), Louise Bourgeois, Peter Zumthor 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2011	My rating:

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Quotes by Peter Zumthor

“There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it. Sometimes I can almost feel a particular door handle in my hand, a piece of metal shaped like the back of a spoon. I used to take hold of it when I went into my aunt's garden. That door handle still seems to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the sound of the gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of the waxed oak staircase, I can hear the heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the kitchen, the only really brightly lit room in the house.”
― Peter Zumthor

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