Peter Vetsch is a Swiss architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, known for building earth house

Earth house

An earth house is an architectural style characterized by the use of natural terrain to help form the walls of a house. An earth house is usually set partially into the ground and covered with thin growth...

s.

Life

Vetsch was born 1943 in Sax, Switzerland. He attended public school in Sax from 1950 to 1956. He then attended an agricultural school in Cernier until 1962, where he graduated. Afterwards he was an apprentice in structural design in Winterthur and worked for an architecture office in St. Gallen.
In the following years, Vetsch attended the academy of arts in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, where he graduated in 1970. After his diploma he worked for architecture offices in Germany and Switzerland.

Occupational activity

Peter Vetsch has run his own architecture office in Dietikon, (Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

) since 1978.

Vetsch has built over 47 earth houses in Switzerland and around the world, and also a number of conventional houses. Vetsch’s Earth houses represent his conception of an environmentally conscious, ecological and progressive architecture.

Using sprayed concrete construction, he creates building shells which encompass maximum space with a minimum of surface area, reducing the energy needed for heating. These constructions eschew right angles, and their spatial diversity overcomes the monotony of traditional designs. They recall Antoni Gaudí's

Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Spanish Catalan architect and figurehead of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works reflect his highly individual and distinctive style and are largely concentrated in the Catalan capital of Barcelona, notably his magnum opus, the Sagrada Família.Much of Gaudí's work was...

 organic forms as well as Jugendstil architecture.

Recently, Vetsch has been linked to designs for a series of Eco Theatres to be built in London's planned Olympic Park in time for London 2012.

In 2011, Vetsch stepped down as the director of Artforum Berlin.

External links

• Earth houses by Peter Vetsch